He began his career in British television in the 1950s with shorts, docs, and artists' biographies, and had a minor big-screen hit early on with the Michael Caine Harry Palmer spy sequel Billion Dollar Brain (1967). But it was Russell's third feature, Women in Love (1969), that put him on the map: Glenda Jackson won an Oscar for her portrayal of a sculptor tangled in amour, and the film received Academy Award nominations for screenplay, cinematography, and direction. (It was to be Russell's only recognition from the Academy.) The naked wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, young, strapping, and grappling before a roaring hearth, kicked up no little controversy, too.
The Devils (1974), starring Vanessa Redgrave as a mad nun, was vilified by church groups, banned by local communities in Britain and abroad, and remembered for its trippy mix of sexual, sadomasochistic, and religious imagery.
Mr. Russell specialized in tales of mania (it's no coincidence that his 1975 Liszt bio, starring the Who's Roger Daltrey, was called Lisztomania), and he was attracted to stories of lust, longing, and lunatic creative types. His most successful film, box office-wise, was Tommy (1974), a grandiose take on the Who's grandiose opus. In Altered States (1980), William Hurt stars as a Harvard professor experimenting with hallucinogens - and suffering the creepy sci-fi consequences. The Lair of the White Worm (1988) displayed a ridiculous penchant for phallic imagery and a superhot Amanda Donohoe. The camp cult classic also marks one of Hugh Grant's earliest star turns.
