Jack Clayton; Englishman Directed ‘Room at the Top’

Jack Clayton, the British film director who espoused quality over quantity and is well remembered for his handful of films that began with “Room at the Top,” has died. He was 73.

Clayton, who was nominated for an Academy Award as best director for that 1959 British film, died in Slough, England, west of London, on Saturday. He had been suffering from heart and liver problems.

He attracted worldwide admiration for his sensitive direction of “Room at the Top,” which starred Laurence Harvey as the status-seeking hero who forfeited love with Simone Signoret to marry the factory boss’s daughter. The film won Oscars for Signoret and scriptwriter Neil Paterson in addition to Clayton’s nomination.

Clayton followed that strong effort with infrequent but memorable films: “The Innocents” in 1961, “The Pumpkin Eater” in 1964, “Our Mother’s House” in 1967, “The Great Gatsby” starring Robert Redford in 1974, and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” in 1983.

“I don’t make many films,” Clayton acknowledged to The Times in 1983. “That’s because I have to be interested in a subject or I just can’t do it. I’m incapable of doing something just for the money.

“Another reason I’ve made so few films,” he said, “is that I always insist on having the final cut. And that’s something most studios refuse to give. I also insist on having full artistic control. So I’ve lost a lot of films I’d love to have done because the studio couldn’t agree to those terms.”

Clayton’s seventh and last film was “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne” in 1987, starring Maggie Smith as a middle-aged spinster.

“I love women’s problems,” Clayton, who worked for one-third his usual salary, said during production. “This story is so emotional. I’m making the film I want to make.”

Born March 1, 1921, in Brighton, England, Clayton was christened not the formal “John” but “Jack,” because, he often joked, he had a sister named Jill.

He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, rising to commanding officer of its film unit. As such, he directed, wrote and helped photograph “Naples Is a Battlefield” in 1944.

Clayton worked as associate producer or assistant director for a series of films in the decade before his 1959 masterpiece. Among those were “Bond Street” in 1948, “Moulin Rouge” in 1952, “Beat the Devil” starring Humphrey Bogart in 1953, “The Good Die Young” in 1954, “The Bespoke Overcoat” in 1956 and “The Whole Truth” in 1958.