Kenneth Rive on AllMovie

The man who brought such acclaimed filmmakers as Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman into the collective conscience of U.K. audiences, London-born film distributor Kenneth Rive was a successful child actor before opting for a career behind the scenes. Raised in Germany and appearing in films alongside such luminaries as Conrad Veidt, Rive labored in British intelligence during World War II before working as a movie-house projectionist and later founding a circuit of art-house theaters. The late '50s found Rive creating his own distribution company, Gala Films, and the company landed an exclusive deal to distribute Russian films in the region before releasing numerous French New Wave classics. Subsequently founding Gala World Films productions, the studio released the films During One Night (1961), The Boys (1962), and Devil Doll (1964). Eventually selling his cinema circuit to focus more on distribution, the 1980s found Rive involved with Canon Pictures before the studio's collapse. A dedicated film distributor up to his last moments, Kenneth Rive died on December 30, 2002.