Ken Russell: a life in photographs – in pictures

Ken Russell's debut film, French Dressing, was a light comedy starring Alita Naughton, James Booth and Roy Kinnear. It was not a box office success, but it established Russell as a safe pair of hands on the circuit after years in TV documentary Photograph: Allstar

Russell scrutinising film negatives in 1966 Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Russell's second effort, Billion Dollar Brain, in 1967, was more successful. Based on Len Deighton's Harry Palmer spy cycle, it starred an up-and-coming Michael Caine Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features

Russell and Glenda Jackson on the set of the film that made them both famous; and won her an Oscar nomination - Women in Love (1969) Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Feature

Russell himself lost out on the best director Oscar for Women in Love, but he was celebrated in the world of television; here pictured in 1969 with the Bafta for the most creative contribution to television producing Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

Russell, Reed and Redgrave reteamed in 1971 for The Devils, trumping even the controversy generated by Women in Love Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Feature

What else to follow The Devils with but a Twiggy vehicle? Here Russell is seen on the set of The Boy Friend in 1971 with Christopher Gable, Barbara Windsor, Brian Murphy, Antonia Ellis and Georgina Hale Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Feature

And, in the same year (1975), Lisztomania, another of Russell's idiosyncratic composer biopics Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Warner Bros

In 1980 Russell continued to innovate, with his first sci-fi, Altered States. But on-set rows triggered his exile from Hollywood Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features

The first of Russell's madcap musical collaborations with Roger Daltry: Tommy, based on the Who's rock opera Photograph: Fotos International/Rex Features

His final film in the US, 1984's Crimes of Passion, was neither a commercial nor critical hit, despite starring Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins
Photograph: c New World/Everett/Rex Features

Russell's last theatrically-released film, Whore, was 1991's second story of the travails of a prostitute. But unlike Pretty Woman, it struggled to find mainstream release Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Trimark

Russell in New York in 2000. Despite working mostly in Europe, the director remained fond of the US Photograph: New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images

Ken Russell photographed the following year at his home in the New Forest in the UK. The director oversaw digital productions, sometimes shot in his own house, and made his mark on the stage, too Photograph: Rex Features

Russell did not let lack of traditional funding and distribution models stop him shooting. His 2002 film The Fall of the Louse of Usher: A Gothic Tale for the 21st Century was filmed in his garden and released online (a pioneer of its type) Photograph: Jocelyn Bain Hogg/VII Network/Corbis

Russell was a much-loved public speaker and celebrity in later years. Here he is pictured at the Coniston Water festival in the Lake District
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Russell was married four times; here he's photographed in 2006 with his fourth wife, Lisi Tribble Photograph: Simon Czapp/Rex Features

Russell photographed earlier this year. He ordered a bottle of wine to share with our interviewer and recalled a childhood spent in the cinema to escape his belligerent father and how the work of Tchaikovsky saved him from a breakdown after leaving the Merchant Navy
Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian