'Poseidon Adventure' director Ronald Neame dies

[June 19, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ronald Neame (neem), who produced and co-wrote acclaimed British films like "Great Expectations," saw Hollywood success as director of "The Poseidon Adventure" and was nominated for three Oscars, has died. He was 99.

Neame's wife Donna told The Associated Press on Friday that her husband died in a Los Angeles hospital Wednesday, about six weeks after being injured in a fall.

Neame began his career of more than 60 years In 1929 when he worked as a cameraman for Alfred Hitchcock on the first British sound film, 1929's "Blackmail."

He was nominated for Oscars with director David Lean as co-writer of 1945's "Brief Encounter" and 1946's "Great Expectations."

He went on to direct the acclaimed 1969 film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and the critically panned 1972 box office hit "The Poseidon Adventure."

[Associated Press]

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