| Biography | He joined the film business in 1919 forming with his war gratuity his own company Astra Films producing and directing his first film, The Wonderful Story in a makeshift studio in Kew.[2] He formed a company, Graham Wilcox Productions, with Jack Graham Cutts in 1920.[2] He set up the British National Company, which was later absorbed into British International Pictures. He also set up a "British Hollywood" at Elstree Studios.
Although Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail is generally regarded as the first film with sound, Wilcox's Black Waters was trade-shown several weeks earlier. He produced more than a hundred films, of which he directed half. In the 1950s he planned to make a biopic about Van Gogh starring Trevor Howard, but it was never made. "His film production team were never laid off, even during the worst depressions of the British film industry. They were on full salary 52 weeks of the year."
Notable postwar films included Odette (1951), Trent's Last Case (1952), Yangtse Incident (1956) and The Lady is a Square (1959). His film company failed in the 1960s and he was declared bankrupt in 1964 but their finances were rescued by the success of the musical play Charlie Girl in which Dame Anna Neagle played and which ran for five years |