Mike Hodges

Michael Tommy Hodges (29 July 1932 – 17 December 2022) was a British screenwriter, film and television director, playwright and novelist. His films as writer/director include Get Carter (1971), Pulp (1972), The Terminal Man (1974) and Black Rainbow (1989). He co-wrote and was the original director on Damien: Omen II. As director, his films include Flash Gordon (1980) and Croupier (1998). Hodges was born in Bristol on 29 July 1932, and was raised in Salisbury and Bath. He qualified as a chartered accountant and spent two years of national service on the lower deck of a Royal Navy minesweeper. Hodges found a job in British television as a teleprompter operator. The job allowed him to observe the workings of the studios, and gave him time to start writing scripts. One of these scripts was Some Will Cry Murder, written for ABC's Armchair Theatre series. Although never performed, it served to get him enough writing commissions to quit his job as a technician.[citation needed]