![\"british-filmmaker-michael-apted-dies-age-79-rapidnews-rapid-news-director-dailyrapidnews\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/british-filmmaker-michael-apted-dies-age-79-rapidnews-rapid-news-director-dailyrapidnews.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBritish filmmaker Michael Apted, the man behind the \u201cUp\u201d documentaries that chronicled the lives of a group of British children for more than 50 years, has died at the age of 79, his U.S. agent said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Apted also directed Hollywood movies ranging from the 1999 James Bond blockbuster \u201cThe World is Not Enough\u201d to the Loretta Lynn country singer biography \u201cCoal Miner\u2019s Daughter\u201d and dozens of TV shows, including episodes of British soap \u201cCoronation Street\u201d in the 1967.<\/p>\n
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Apted died on Thursday at his Los Angeles home, Roy Ashton, his agent in the United States, said. Details of his death were not available.<\/p>\n
Apted\u2019s most notable project was the \u201cUp\u201d series. It began in 1964 as a television documentary about the hopes and dreams of 14 7 year-old children from diverse backgrounds who Apted revisited every seven years to see how their lives had changed.<\/p>\n
The series, which won multiple awards over the years, was inspired by the saying \u201cGive me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.\u201d The most recent, \u201c63 Up,\u201d was released in 2019.<\/p>\n
The Academy of Motion Pictures said on Friday that Apted \u201cwill always be remembered for the groundbreaking documentary \u201cUp\u201d series.<\/p>\n
Apted was born in Britain, attended Cambridge University and started his career as a researcher at Britain\u2019s Granada Television, where the idea for the first \u201cUp\u201d documentary was born.<\/p>\n
In later life, he moved to Los Angeles and directed dozens of movies, including \u201cGorillas in the Mist,\u201d thriller \u201cGorky Park,\u201d \u201cThunder Heart\u201d and \u201cEnigma.\u201d He served as president of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) from 2003-2009.<\/p>\n
DGA president Thomas Schlamme on Friday called him a friend and a \u201cfearless visionary as a director.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British filmmaker Michael Apted, the man behind the \u201cUp\u201d documentaries that chronicled the lives of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n