Sir David Lean KBE (March 25, 1908 - April 16, 1991) was an Academy Award-winning English film director and producer, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India. Widely acclaimed and winning the praise of directors such as Steven Spielberg , Martin Scorsese , Stanley Kubrick , and George Lucas , Lean was voted 9th greatest film director of all time in the BFI "Directors Top Directors" poll 2002.

David Lean (born 22 August,1935) was an Australian athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.

He competed for Australia in the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia in the 4 x 400 metre relay where he won the Silver medal with his team mates Graham Gipson, Leon Gregory and Kevan Gosper.

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon in 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family. Ironically, as a child, he wasn't allowed to go to the movies. During the twenties, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding a job in a cinema studio in 1927. He worked as tea boy, clapper boy, messenger, then newsreel cutter and finally feature film editor, notably for Anthony Asquith, Paul Czinner and Michael Powell. By the end of the thirties, Lean's reputation as editor was very well established. In 1942, Noel Coward gave Lean the chance to co-direct with him the war movie 'In which we serve'. Shortly after, with the encouragement of Noel Coward; Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer Anthony Havelock-Allan launched a production company called Cineguild. For that firm, Lean first directed adaptations of three plays by Noel Coward: the chronicle `This happy breed' (1944), the humorous ghost story 'Blithe Spirit' (1945), and most notably the sentimental drama 'Brief Encounter' (1946). Originally a box office failure in England, Brief Encounter was presented at the very first Cannes film festival (1946) where it won almost unanimous praises as well as a Grand Prize. From Coward, Lean switched to Dickens, directing two well-regarded adaptations: 'Great Expectations' (1946) and 'Oliver Twist' (1948). The latter, starring Alec Guinness in his first major movie role, was however criticized by some for potential anti-semitic inflections. The two last films film made under the Cineguild banner were 'The Passionate Friends' (1948) a romance from a novel by H. G. Wells, and the true crime story 'Madeleine' (1950). Neither had a significant impact on critics or audiences. The Cineguild partnership came to an end after a dispute between David Lean and Ronald Neame. Lean's first post-Cineguild production was the aviation drama 'The Sound Barrier' (1952), a great box-office success in England and his most spectacular movie so far. He followed with two sophisticated comedies based on theater plays: 'Hobson's choice' (1954) and the Anglo-American co-production 'Summertime' (1955). Both were well received and 'Hobson's choice' won the Golden Bear at the 1954 Berlin film festival. Lean's next movie was pivotal in his career as it was the first of those grand scale epic he will become renown for. 'The Bridge on the river Kwai' (1957) was produced by Sam Spiegel from a novel by Pierre Boulle adapted by blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman. Shot in Ceylon under extremely difficult conditions, the film was an international success and triumphed at the Oscars, winning seven awards, most notably best film and director. Lean and Spiegel followed with an even more ambitious film, 'Lawrence of Arabia' based on the autobiography of T.E. Lawrence 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'. Starring relative newcomer Peter O'Toole, this film was the first collaboration between Lean and writer Robert Bolt, cinematographer Freddie Young and composer Maurice Jarre. The shooting itself took place in Spain, Morrocco and Jordania over a period of 20 months. Initial reviews were mixed and the film was trimmed down shortly after its world premiere and cut even more during a 1971 re-release. Like its predecessor, it won seven Oscars, once again including best film and director. The same team of Lean, Bolt, Young and Jarre next worked on an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965) for producer Carlo Ponti. Spain and Finland stood for revolutionary Russia and, despite divided critics, the film was hugely successful, as was Maurice Jarre's musical score. Doctor Zhivago won five Oscars out of ten nominations, but the statuettes for film and director went to 'The Sound of music'. Lean's next movie, the sentimental drama 'Ryan's daughter' (1970), did not reach the same heights. The original screenplay by Robert Bolt was produced by old associate Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Lean once again secured the collaboration of Freddie Young and Maurice Jarre. The shooting in Ireland lasted about a year, much longer than expected. The film won two Oscars; but, for the most part, critical reaction was tepid, sometimes downright derisive, and the general public didn't really respond to the movie. This relative lack of success seems to have inhibited Lean's creativity for a while. But towards the end of the seventies, he started to work again with Robert Bolt on an ambitious two-part movie about the Bounty mutiny. The project fell apart and was eventually recuperated by Dino de Laurentiis. Lean was then approached by producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin to adapt E. M. Forster's novel 'A Passage to India', a book Lean had been interested in for more than 20 years. For the first time of his career; Lean wrote the adaptation alone, basing himself partly on Santha Rama Rau's stage version of the book. Lean also acted as his own editor. The film opened in 1984 to mostly favourable reviews and performed quite well at the box-office. It was a strong Oscar contender, scoring eleven nominations. It settled for two wins, losing the trophy battle to Milos Forman's 'Amadeus'. David Lean spent the last few years of his life preparing an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's meditative adventure novel 'Nostromo'. He also participated briefly in Richard Harris's restoration of 'Lawrence Of Arabia' in 1988. In 1990, Lean received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award. He died of cancer in April 1991, shortly before the shooting of 'Nostromo' was about to begin. Lean was known on sets for his extreme perfectionism and autocratic behaviour, an attitude that sometimes alienated his cast or crew. Though his cinematic approach, classic and refined, clearly belongs to a bygone era, his films have aged rather well and his influence can still be found in movies like 'The English Patient' and 'Titanic'. In 1999, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 favourite British films of the 20th century. Five movies by David Lean appeared in the top 30, three of them in the top five.