Terence Davies, the acclaimed English filmmaker who directed The Deep Blue Sea and The House Of Mirth, dies at 77 after a ‘short illness’

• Davies died on Saturday at his home, according to his official Instagram account
• He started his career with autobiographical films like The Long Day Closes
• Davies is now considered one of the greatest of all English filmmakers 

Terence Davies, the English filmmaker who directed several classic autobiographical films and literary adaptations including The House Of Mirth and The Neon Bible, has died at age 77.

Davies’ official Instagram account announced the news on Saturday, noting he had died ‘peacefully at home’ earlier in the day following a ‘short illness.’

The director and screenwriter, who was born in Liverpool in 1945, launched his career — and quickly became known as one of Britain’s greatest filmmakers — with the autobiographical films Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992).

Later, he followed those intimate films up with productions featuring major stars from the US and UK, including the divisive Gena Rowlands–starring adaptation of The Neon Bible (1995), the Gillian Anderson–fronted Edith Wharton adaptation The House Of Mirth (2000) and the romantic Drama The Deep Blue Sea (2011), which starred Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. 

Davies’ most recent feature film was 2021’s Benediction, in which both Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi played the English war poet Siegfried Sassoon.

The Long Day Closes: Terence Davies, the English filmmaker who directed several classic autobiographical films and literary adaptations including The House Of Mirth and The Neon Bible, has died at age 77; seen in 2016 in NYC

Saying goodbye: Davies’ official Instagram announced that he had died on Saturday ‘peacefully at home’ following a ‘short illness’

Modern classics: Davies was known for several autobiographical films and literary adaptations. One of his most popular films was 2011’s romantic drama The Deep Blue Sea, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston

He has never directed a film set in the present day.

‘Being in the past makes me feel safe because I understand that world,’ the prolific filmmaker told The Guardian in 2022. 

Davies was born to a large Catholic family in the months after the end of World War II, he left school at 16 and worked as a clerk for decade before enrolling in Coventry Drama School.

His first film, a short named Children, was written while he was in school and is autobiographcal.

After the release of that film, he attended the National Film School where he made another biographical film about the years he worked as a clerk called Madonna and Child. 

His third film Death and Transfiguration completed what became known as The Terence Davies Trilogy and centered on him musing on the possible circumstances of his death. 

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