Clayton, Jack (1921–1995)

English film director, originally a producer. His first feature, Room at the Top (1958), heralded a new maturity in British cinema, not only for the frankness of its sex scenes, but also for the harshly drawn realism of its setting in the north of England. Other works include The Innocents (1961), The Great Gatsby (1974), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).

Clayton was born in Brighton, Sussex. He entered the film industry when he was only 14, and served in the Royal Air Force film unit during World War II. After the war, he progressed steadily to become associate producer of such prestige films as Moulin Rouge (1952). Anxious not to be confined to realism after the success of Room at the Top, he turned for his next film, The Innocents (1961), to an adaptation of Henry James's ghost story The Turn of the Screw.

After two further British films, Clayton went to the USA in 1974 to realize his long-term ambition of filming F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, with Robert Redford in the leading role.