Yesterday, Gerry Anderson passed away. He was a renowned producer, editor, director, and writer, very active for decades, especially in television.
Gerald Alexander Abrahams, this was his birth name, was born on April 14, 1929, in London, England. The family changed its name to Anderson in 1939.
During World War II, Lionel Anderson, Gerry’s elder brother, served at a U.S.A.F. base called Thunderbird Field, a name that remained in the young Gerry’s mind.
Gerry Anderson started working in photography and, after the war, completed his apprenticeship at the British Colonial Film Unit. After developing an interest in video editing, he went to Gainsborough Pictures, where he gained more experience.
After his military service in the RAF, Gerry Anderson returned to Gainsborough and remained there until 1950. Later, he worked as a freelancer in various movies, and in the meantime, he married his first wife, Betty Wrightman, and with her, he had two children, Linda and Joy.
Towards the middle ’50s, Gerry Anderson joined the Polytechnic Studios, an independent television production company for which he worked as a director. In 1957, along with a couple of colleagues, he formed Pentagon Films, but that didn’t last long. Anderson and his colleague Arthur Provis formed AP Films together with other partners. To find money for the new company, Anderson kept on working as a freelance director.
Gerry Anderson started an affair with his secretary, Sylvia Thamm, in 1960 and ended up getting a divorce from his first wife to marry her. With Sylvia, he had a son, Gerry Junior. Anderson’s company had some financial problems, and Sylvia became a partner. During that year, the series “Knight Rider” was produced, which saw the debut of the system called Supermarionation, which used puppets in a realistic way.
In 1962, AP Films produced the series “Fireball XL5”, again with the Supermarionation technique. The success led to the sale of its rights in the U.S.A. to NBC. In 1964, the production of the series “Thunderbirds” started, and it was an even greater success worldwide. AP Films, which in the meantime had changed its name to Century 21 Productions, also produced two movies connected to this series, but they were failures. Things went better with the series “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons”.
Century 21 Productions tried to produce conventional TV shows as well, but initially their success was limited. In 1969, the sci-fi series “UFO” was produced, which initially had moderate success but eventually became a cult show.
The relationship between Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia had many problems during the ’70s, but they worked together on another sci-fi series, “Space: 1999”. In the second season, however, the American producer Fred Freiberger replaced Sylvia Anderson after her separation from her husband. This led to major changes in the series, and the second season wasn’t at the level of the first, but again a cult formed around this show in time.
In 1980, Gerry Anderson and Sylvia divorced, and in 1981, he married Mary Robins, with whom he had a son, Jamie. Together with some partners, he founded another production company, Anderson Burr Pictures Ltd. The various series produced didn’t have the same success as his past ones, and only in 1994, Anderson was able to bring to the screen “Space Precinct”, followed by “Lavender Castle”.
The last Gerry Anderson production was “Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet” in 2005, but it wasn’t successful despite being the most expensive children’s program ever produced inthe UK.
Gerry Anderson had other plans, but in the last years of his life, he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. In recent years, his condition had worsened until his death. His creations have made and still make adults and children dream.
