Gerry Anderson MBE, born 14 April 1929, is a British producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation".
His first television production was the 1957 Roberta Leigh children's series The Adventures of Twizzle. His most famous and successful production in this genre came later: Thunderbirds, which was made in 1965. His production company, originally known as AP Films and later renamed Century 21 Productions, was in collaboration with partners Reg Hill, John Read and his then-wife Sylvia Anderson.
He has also written and produced several feature films, although these did not perform as well as expected at the box office. Following a successful move towards live action productions in the 1970s, his long and highly successful association with Lew Grade's ITC (Incorporated Television Company) ended with the second series of Space 1999. After a career lull when a number of new series concepts failed to get off the ground, his career began a new phase in the early 1980s when audience nostalgia for his earlier Supermarionation series (prompted by Saturday morning re-runs in the UK) led to new Anderson productions being commissioned. A number of new projects have resulted including a recent CGI remake of Captain Scarlet entitled Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet.
Gerald Michael Anderson, known professionally as Gerry Anderson (born 1944) is a Northern Irish Sony Award-winning radio and television broadcaster from Derry, who works for BBC Northern Ireland, and a member of the Radio Academy Hall of fame.
Father of Jamie Anderson (IV).
He was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2001.
Anderson's ancestral (from the Russian-Polish border) name was Bieloglovski. This was changed to "Abrahams" by a British immigration official in 1895. His mother, Deborah, changed it to "Anderson" because she liked the sound of it.
His film career started as a teenager under George Pearson (III) at the Colonial Film Unit.
