PASSINGS : Anthony Pelissier; Actor-Turned-Director

Anthony Pelissier, 75, who began his career as a stage actor but won fame as a director of plays and films. He directed and wrote the screenplays of two widely shown films, “The History of Mr. Polly,” based on a novel by H.G. Wells, and “The Rocking Horse Winner,” based on a short story by D.H. Lawrence. Pelissier, who also directed and produced plays, was the son of Fay Compton, a leading actress, and of theater producer H.G. Pelissier. He made his acting debut in a London musical, “Follow Through,” and was promptly fired when he and three other actors missed two performances after getting stuck on a mud bank while sailing on the Thames River estuary. In Eastbourne on the English south coast on Saturday of unannounced causes.