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Born in India, and the son of a military officer, Lindsay Anderson emerged as a critic and journalist in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and became a major force in the reshaping of British cinema. With his calls for greater topicality and social awareness in British films, he--along with such figures as Tony Richardson--helped transform the image of British pictures from their post-World War II stodginess into a vital force in international films during the 1960s. Anderson began as a filmmaker in the field of documentaries during the late 1940s, and earned an Academy award in 1954 for his short Thursday's Children, and he subsequently worked as a director on television. He became a theatrical director in the late 1950s, and moved into feature film work in 1963 with This Sporting Life. This and his subsequent movies, including If. . . , O Lucky Man!, and Britannia Hospital (all of which starred Malcolm McDowell) are characterized by a grim view of English society, government, and their institutions, and a generally nihilist view of the world, coupled with disconcerting elements of realism.