David Leland
British actor, screenwriter and director
David Leland (20 April 1941 – 24 December 2023) was a British film director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.
Life and career
Leland initially trained as an actor at Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1963, he was part of the breakaway group of Central staff and students who formed Drama Centre London along with fellow students including actor and later theatre director Jack Shepherd and Jon Lord, later keyboard player and co-founder of rock band Deep Purple and Whitesnake. After several small parts as actor he began his collaboration with British television director Alan Clarke in 1981. Their film Made in Britain was well received and featured the first screen role of actor Tim Roth. Made in Britain won the Prix Italia (an international television award) in 1984. In 1986, Leland and director Neil Jordan co-wrote the screenplay for the thriller-drama Mona Lisa, featuring Bob Hoskins. With Jordan, he was nominated for BAFTA, Golden Globe and Writers Guild of America awards.
Leland then wrote Personal Services in 1986. It was directed by Terry Jones and concerned Cynthia Payne, a real-life British madam who ran a private brothel.
“David Leland” enters the record as british actor, screenwriter and director. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what David, Leland and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q325805. VIAF identifies the subject as 74939475. The Library of Congress control number is n97027206. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2023, 1987 and 1963.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Leland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.