Kenneth Cooper Annakin (1914 - 2009)

Born 10 Aug 1914 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Blanka (Kovanda) Annakin — married 1944 in Surrey, England, United Kingdom

Died 22 Apr 2009 at age 94 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States

Biography

Kenneth Annakin is Notable.

Kenneth Annakin was born in England.

Kenneth Cooper "Ken" Annakin, OBE was a prolific English film director^[1]

He was born and grew up in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. The only son of a government surveyor, Edward Annakin and Jane (Gains) Cooper daughter of a farmer and he was born on 10 August 1914^[2] and raised in the industrial town of Beverley in East Yorkshire, where he attended grammar school, leaving at 16 to work as a clerk in a tax office in the City of Hull, finding respite in movies and attending an evening course in drama at Hull University (which later awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree). Winning £100 on the Derby , he bought a ticket to Auckland and embarked on travels to New Zealand, Australia and the US, hitch-hiking or taking casual work as a car salesman, compere of a commercial road show and a journalist^[3]

Probate 12 Mar 1942: Edward Cooper Annakin named Kenneth Cooper Annakin in his will as a beneficiary^[4]

MARRIED Pauline Carter and they had two daughters Jane Annakin and Deborah (Peters) Annakin^[5]

MARRIED:Blanka Kovanda In 1944 at Surrey, England Surrey North Eastern, Surrey, England^[6]

At the start of the Second World War he worked with the Auxiliary Fire Service before being drafted into the RAF as a mechanic. Injured in the Liverpool blitz, he was moved to the RAF Film Unit, where he worked as camera operator on propaganda films for the Ministry of Information and the British Council. We Serve (1942), a recruiting film for women, was directed by Carol Reed, who made Annakin his assistant director, after which Annakin directed several training films for Verity Films, a group led by Sidney Box, who was about to become head of Gainsborough Pictures. He advised Annakin to make a film that showed he could handle actors as well as he dealt with documentary.

"I was lucky," he recalled, "in that I got a picture called English Criminal Justice (1946), which really explained the British system of law and gave me a wonderful break. Sidney kept his promise and gave me Holiday Camp to direct. I was a typical documentary guy and Holiday Camp taught me a lot about movies – like the need for humour and good women's roles."

Career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in 2002 and peaked in the 1960s with large-scale adventure films and in all he directed nearly 50 pictures and was compere and stage manager of Eugene Permanent Waving Company's roadshow, touring the Northern provinces. World War Two started and Annakin was a firefighter in Soho, then joined the RAF.

Hollywood In 1978, Ken Annakin left Britain and moved to Los Angeles.^[7] There he made a series of films for TV: Murder at the Mardi Gras (1978), The Pirate (1978) from a novel by Harold Robbins and Institute for Revenge (1979). He travelled to Europe for The Fifth Musketeer (1979). In Hollywood he made Cheaper to Keep Her (1981) and went to Australia for The Pirate Movie (1982).

Annakin's last completed film was The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988) which he directed, produced and co wrote. The 1992 project Genghis Khan was not completed. "The company financing it went bust," he said."

In 2001 he released a highly regarded autobiography So You Wanna Be A Director? published by Tomahawk Press (ISBN 0-953 1926-5-2). Considered "a classic among directors' autobiographies" it has forewords by both Richard Attenborough and Mike Leigh. In their review, the Directors Guild of America stated: So You Wanna Be a Director? is an entertaining autobiography through which seasoned directors and aspirants alike can enjoy and learn from a man with such a versatile and long-lived career. If Annakin tells of his exasperation over trying to coax performances out of producers' girlfriends, the bad behaviour – and sometimes the drug problems – of certain stars and the vagaries of international film financing, he's providing tales that are as cautionary today as when he lived them.

Probate Will: 1943 "Maud Gains of 36 Middleton-road Ilkley, Yorkshire spinster died 26 January 1943 at the Ilkley Coronation Hospital Ilkley. Probate Llandudno 29 March to Kenneth Cooper Annakin film director. Effects Pounds 3918 14s 2d^[8]

A Disney Legend by the Walt Disney Company in March 2002. He is only the second film director to be so honoured. He was also awarded an OBE the same year for services to the film industry and received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Hull University.

He died on 22 April 2009, the same day as Jack Cardiff, who had been his cinematographer on the 1979 film The Fifth Musketeer. A daughter from a previous marriage predeceased him. His Burial place^[9]

Kenneth Cooper Annakin, film director: born Beverly, East Yorkshire 10 August 1914; married 1959 (two daughters, one deceased); OBE, 2002; died Beverly Hills, California 22 April 2009^[10].^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ken-annakin-film-director
2. ↑ United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGGH-DTT : 19 May 2014), Kenneth Cooper Annakin, 22 Apr 2009; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
3. ↑ GRO Reference: 1914 S Quarter in BEVERLEY Volume 09D Page 192)
4. ↑ "England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7613-VHZM : 27 August 2019), Edward Cooper Annakin, 12 Mar 1942; citing Probate, York, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Great Britain.; FHL microfilm
5. ↑ https://www.bing.com/search?q=kenneth+cooper+annakin&form=EDGTCT&qs=PF&cvid=bf6604affbb24180bcab783ee5c0624d&refig=e5c6d6c41f414aacfa99c5d8d124fdad&cc
6. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV8Y-H8LN : 8 October 2014), Kenneth C Annakin and null, 1944; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1944, quarter 3, vol. 2A, p. 276, Surrey North Eastern, Surrey, England, General Register Office, Southport, England
7. ↑ California, Los Angeles Passenger Lists, 1907-1948," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZQH-BJF : 13 March 2018), Kenneth Cooper Annakin, 1938; citing Immigration, ship name Mariposa, NARA microfilm publication M1764 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 85; FHL microfilm 1,734,689. Mariposa
8. ↑ Probate 1943 Page 313 Maud Gaines https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
9. ↑ Buried: Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary
10. ↑ Obituary". The Independent
11. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK4K-3B38 : accessed 15 January 2020), Ken Annakin, Washington, United States, 26 Apr 2009; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Seattle Times, The, born-digital text.

See also:

• " Hevesi, Dennis (24 April 2009). "Ken Annakin, 'Magnificent' Director, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
• "^ "Obituary". The Independent Saturday 25 April 2009 00:00
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Annakin
• https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb
• https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp145233