- published: 05 Nov 2014
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Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for his 1968 film if...., which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival. Malcolm McDowell produced a stage presentation now available on DVD about his experiences with Lindsay Anderson, "Never Apologize." The title comes from dialogue of a John Ford film.
Of Scottish parentage, Anderson was the son of a British Army officer. He was born in Bangalore, South India, and educated at Saint Ronan's School in Worthing, West Sussex, and at Cheltenham College, where he met his lifelong friend and biographer, the screenwriter and novelist Gavin Lambert; Wadham College, Oxford, where he studied classics; and Magdalen College, Oxford where he studied English literature.
After graduating, Anderson worked for the final year of World War II as a cryptographer for the Intelligence Corps, at the Wireless Experimental Centre in Delhi. Anderson assisted in nailing the Red flag to the roof of the Junior Officers mess in Annan Parbat, in August 1945, after the victory of the Labour Party in the general election was confirmed. The colonel did not approve, he recalled a decade later, but no disciplinary action was taken against them.