August 25 - John Badham

 

Happy 81st Birthday, John Badham! Born today in 1939 as John MacDonald Badham, this veteran English-born American author, professor and director of film and television's striking visual sense and innate gift for montage has served him well throughout his career. 

Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, Badham was the son of U.S. Army General Henry Lee Badham, Jr., and English-born actress Mary Iola Badham (née Hewitt). 

Harry, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, moved his family back to America when John was two years old. 

Henry was an aviator in both World Wars, and was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007.  

After retirement from the U.S. Air Force as a brigadier general, Henry became a businessman and helped develop the Ensley and Bessemer regions near Birmingham, Alabama.  

This same line of business had brought his own father, John's grandfather, into association with Walker Percy, grandfather of writer Walker Percy. 

After World War II, Badham's family settled in Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham. 

He attended the Indian Springs School, at that time a brand-new, liberal boy's school located a short distance south of Birmingham  

Years later he studied at Yale University. This was where he eventually earned a BA and an MA in the arts.

Afterwards, Badham worked in television for years before his breakthrough in the late 1970.

This was in directing the film of which he is best known, being the 1977 American dance/drama film 'Saturday Night Fever'. It would later go on to become a massive worldwide hit. 

  

The story for the film was based upon a 1976 article in the American biweekly magazine New York. The article, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" had been written by British writer Nick Cohn. 

Upon release, 'Saturday Night Fever' was a huge commercial success and had a tremendous effect on popular culture of the late 1970s. On a budget of $3.5 million, 'Saturday Night Fever' grossed $237.1 million at the box office. 

The following year, Saturday Night Fever' was nominated an Oscar for Best Actor (John Travolta). However, he didn't win. This occurred at the 50th Academy Awards in early April 1978. 

Upon release, the film significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on ABC's sitcom Welcome Back Kotter (1975–1979) a household name. 

The soundtrack for 'Saturday Night Fever', featuring disco songs by The Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. 

The film showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies; haute couture styles of clothing; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; and graceful choreography. 

A belated sequel, the 1983 American dance/musical film 'Staying Alive'. also starring Travolta, was released six years later. However, it was panned by critics. 

Among his other film credits, Badham is known for directing 'Dracula' (1979), 'WarGames' (1983), 'Blue Thunder' (1983), 'Short Circuit' (1986), and 'Stakeout' (1987). 

In the mid-1990s, Cohn acknowledged that he had fabricated his article. 

A newcomer to the United States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, he was unable to make any sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about; instead, the character who became Tony Manero was based on an English mod acquaintance of Cohn. 

According to Badham's unrealized projects, Badham has been considered to direct films that ended up being helmed by other directors. This included 'The Wiz' (1978), 'The Dead Zone' (1983), and 'Ghost Dad' (1990). 

Among his most notable television credits, Badham is known for directing one episode of The Shield (2002–2008), nine episodes of Supernatural (2005–present), one episode of Criminal Minds (2005–2020), two episodes of Heroes (2006–2010), five episodes of Psych (2006–2014), and one episode of Arrow (2012–2020). 

According to his personal life, Badham currently serves as a professor at Chapman University in Orange, California. 

In 2010, 'Saturday Night Fever' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. 

Among his trademarks, Badham's areas of expertise are working with actors, action, suspense and fantasy films. 

Badham has been active from 1969–present. 

#borntodicrect 

@JohnBadham2
@librarycongress 

@tcm 

@RogerEbert 

@TVGuide 

@ChapmanUniversity 

@SuperWiki 

@Amazon 

@letterboxd 

@getFANDOM