Losey, Joseph (Walton)

US film director. Blacklisted in the USA for alleged communist affiliations in 1952, he settled in the UK, where he made a series of subtle if sometimes wilfully mannered studies of personal relationships as shaped and distorted by class and other social factors. These include The Servant (1963), Accident (1966), and The Go-Between (1971).

After working as a freelance journalist, stage manager, and theatre director on Broadway, Losey became a Hollywood director in 1938. Early films such as The Boy With Green Hair (1948) and The Prowler (1951) demonstrated the seriousness of his concerns. Among his British-made films are Eva/Eve (1962), King and Country (1964), and Secret Ceremony (1968).