Biografia

After he was fired from O Sétimo Pecado (1957) and replaced with Vincente Minnelli, he received a sympathetic call from George Cukor, assuring him he would bounce back.

Financial difficulties arose for the family after the death of his father, Elwin Neame, in 1923. As a result, he was forced to leave public school to look for a job. He found one at the newly opened Elstree Studios. This started him on his way to being a film director.

Directed three actresses to Oscar nominations: Edith Evans (Best Supporting Actress, Corações Feridos (1964)), Maggie Smith (Best Actress, A Primavera de uma Solteirona (1969)), and Shelley Winters (Best Supporting Actress, O Destino do Poseidon (1972)). Smith won an Academy Award for her performance.

In 2003, the British Film Institute called him "a living embodiment" of cinema, and "a sort of one-man world heritage site".

After his boss, Claude Friese-Greene, collapsed on the set in an alcoholic stupor, young assistant cameraman Neame finished the picture, a quota quickie entitled Dominador dos Mares (1935), as well as the next scheduled title, A Valsa da Felicidade (1935).

[on David Lean] "If he heard his best friend was dying while he was on the set, I doubt if he'd take it in. Once he's started a film, there's really nothing else in his life."

[on working with Judy Garland in Na Glória, a Amargura (1963)] Suddenly, Judy had become the real Judy. It was no longer acting and it was absolutely wonderful.

[About his working relationship with J. Arthur Rank] I always remember him as a rather big man, but that may be because I was a very slim, young man at the time. He wasn't fat. I remember a mustache, a good-natured face. You know when you met him that this was a good man. And so we started to choose subjects, prepare scripts, and knew that we had a lovely studio to shoot them in. And we knew nobody was going to say, "This won't go in America," or "This doesn't seem too good," or "This costs too much." None of that. We didn't make films with an American market in mind, which quite frankly would have been fatal. Even today I think that if Britain tries to make a film that will go well in America, it's a mistake. They are making films in England, and they should make the film they believe in.

[About the early 40s] At that time everybody was asking why it was that America could shoot 20 setups a day and in England we seemed to only manage about nine? It was partly union problems - too many cups of tea in the afternoon - but it was also equipment. We were very, very short of cameras.

[About Alexander Korda] I once had a meeting with him. I remember thinking, Korda can make you think black is white, or white is black that he would say at a meeting, "Well, you see, black is white, Ronnie." And you'd say, "Yes, yes." And then halfway up Brook Street after you'd left, you'd say, "Well, no. That's not so. Black isn't white."