‘Hamburger Hill’ Director Dies at 86

Hamburger Hill director John Irvin has died at the age of 86. The three-time BAFTA-nominated Brit led a career that spanned five decades across a broad range of works, from TV to miniseries and action flicks on the big screen. His producer Claire Evans told the Guardian that he died “peacefully at home” last week, on August 11, although no cause of death has been made public. Making his name in Hollywood in 1980, he directed The Dogs of War, starring Christopher Walken, but is perhaps best known for the 1979 adaptation of John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring Star Wars royalty Alec Guinness. It earned BAFTA and Emmy nominations, while Guinness once praised Irvin as “a director with balls behind the camera!” Irvin’s 1987 Vietnam War film Hamburger Hill was seen as one of the most realistic depictions of the conflict. Life almost imitated art when, after making a documentary about the civil war in North Yemen, the British intelligence service, MI6, approached him. It never materialized, however, with Irvin saying in a 2021 interview, “I was far too left-wing, for a start, but was anti-apartheid, anti-war, anti-nuclear. They were probably well aware of my left-wing activities, so I was certainly not involved in any hanky-panky.” He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.

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