British fimmaker Mike Hodges is pictured in London on April 26, 2004. Hodges, who directed gangland thriller “Get Carter” and sci-fi cult basic “Flash Gordon,” died on the age of 90, his good friend his good friend Mike Kaplan instructed British media on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Myung Jung Kim/AP

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Myung Jung Kim/AP

British fimmaker Mike Hodges is pictured in London on April 26, 2004. Hodges, who directed gangland thriller “Get Carter” and sci-fi cult basic “Flash Gordon,” died on the age of 90, his good friend his good friend Mike Kaplan instructed British media on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Myung Jung Kim/AP

LONDON — British filmmaker Mike Hodges, who directed gangland thriller “Get Carter” and sci-fi cult basic “Flash Gordon,” has died. He was 90.
Hodges died at his dwelling within the county of Dorset in southwest England on Saturday, his good friend and former producer Mike Kaplan instructed British media on Wednesday. No reason behind loss of life was given.

Born within the English port metropolis of Bristol in 1932, Hodges educated as an accountant and did two years of obligatory army service aboard a Royal Navy minesweeper, visiting poor coastal communities round England.

“For two years, my middle-class eyes were forced to witness horrendous poverty and deprivation that I was previously unaware of,” he wrote in a letter to The Guardian earlier this yr.

The expertise influenced his characteristic debut, 1971 thriller “Get Carter,” which he wrote and directed. It starred Michael Caine as a gangster who returns to his dwelling metropolis of Newcastle on the path of his brother’s killers. Remembered for its unflinching violence, vividly gritty northeast England areas and jazz rating, it is thought-about a British basic.

Caine additionally starred in Hodges’ 1972 crime comedy “Pulp.” Hodges went on to direct 1974 sci-fi thriller “The Terminal Man,” starring George Segal as a scientist who turns violent after electrodes are implanted in his mind.

“Flash Gordon,” made amid the science fiction deluge unleashed by the success of “Star Wars,” was launched in 1980. A campy romp impressed by Thirties journey comics, pop music movies and expressionist cinema, it was a success in Britain and gained a global cult following.

Hodges’ 1985 sci-fi comedy “Morons from Outer Space” was much less profitable. His Eighties movies additionally included “A Prayer for the Dying,” starring Mickey Rourke as a former IRA militant, and “Black Rainbow” with Rosanna Arquette as a psychic medium focused by a killer.

Hodges had a late-career success with 1998 drama “Croupier,” which gave Clive Owen his worldwide breakout function as a supplier in a London on line casino. The movie initially flopped within the U.Okay. however bought rave evaluations within the U.S. and have become a success.

Owen additionally starred in Hodges’ closing movie “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” launched in 2003.

Actor Brian Blessed, who starred in “Flash Gordon,” instructed the BBC that Hodges had “a very powerful personality and a joyful, cheerful, brilliant imagination.”

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