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'Get Carter,' 'Flash Gordon' director Mike Hodges dies at 90

British fimmaker Mike Hodges is pictured in London on April 26, 2004. Hodges, who directed gangland thriller Get Carter and sci-fi cult classic Flash Gordon, died at the age of 90, his friend his friend Mike Kaplan told British media on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. (Myung Jung Kim/PA via AP) (Myung Jung Kim)

LONDON ā€“ British filmmaker Mike Hodges, who directed gangland thriller ā€œGet Carterā€ and sci-fi cult classic ā€œFlash Gordon,ā€ has died. He was 90.

Hodges died at his home in the county of Dorset in southwest England on Saturday, his friend and former producer Mike Kaplan told British media on Wednesday. No cause of death was given.

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Born in the English port city of Bristol in 1932, Hodges trained as an accountant and did two years of compulsory military service aboard a Royal Navy minesweeper, visiting poor coastal communities around England.

ā€œFor two years, my middle-class eyes were forced to witness horrendous poverty and deprivation that I was previously unaware of,ā€ he wrote in a letter to The Guardian earlier this year.

The experience influenced his feature debut, 1971 thriller ā€œGet Carter,ā€ which he wrote and directed. It starred Michael Caine as a gangster who returns to his home city of Newcastle on the trail of his brotherā€™s killers. Remembered for its unflinching violence, vividly gritty northeast England locations and jazz score, itā€™s considered a British classic.

Caine also starred in Hodgesā€™ 1972 crime comedy ā€œPulp.ā€ Hodges went on to direct 1974 sci-fi thriller ā€œThe Terminal Man,ā€ starring George Segal as a scientist who turns violent after electrodes are implanted in his brain.

ā€œFlash Gordon,ā€ made amid the science fiction deluge unleashed by the success of ā€œStar Wars,ā€ was released in 1980. A campy romp inspired by 1930s adventure comics, pop music videos and expressionist cinema, it was a hit in Britain and gained an international cult following.

Hodges' 1985 sci-fi comedy ā€œMorons from Outer Spaceā€ was less successful. His 1980s films also included ā€œA Prayer for the Dying,ā€ starring Mickey Rourke as a former IRA militant, and ā€œBlack Rainbowā€ with Rosanna Arquette as a psychic medium targeted by a killer.

Hodges had a late-career success with 1998 drama ā€œCroupier,ā€ which gave Clive Owen his international breakout role as a dealer in a London casino. The film initially flopped in the U.K. but got rave reviews in the U.S. and became a hit.

Owen also starred in Hodgesā€™ final film ā€œIā€™ll Sleep When Iā€™m Dead,ā€ released in 2003.

Actor Brian Blessed, who starred in ā€œFlash Gordon,ā€ told the BBC that Hodges had ā€œa very powerful personality and a joyful, cheerful, brilliant imagination.ā€

Hodges is survived by his wife, Carol Laws, his sons Ben and Jake, and several grandchildren.


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