Henry Herbert

An exceptional case of royalty giving way to a career in film, Henry Herbert's work as a writer, producer, and director stood in stark contrast to his role as the 17th Earl of Pembroke and the 14th Earl of Montgomery. Born Henry George Charles Alexander Herbert in Pembroke, Wales, the aristocrat chose not to simply play out his life in the role into which he was born; Instead, he entered the movie business as a runner on Anthony Mann's The Heroes of Telemark (1965) at the age of 16. Fascinated with the modern, freewheeling lifestyle, Herbert was soon shooting documentaries on such rock & roll royalty as Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. A subsequent documentary on blind children entitled What Color Is the Wind earned him a high-profile award at the Chicago Film Festival, and, in 1966 -- much to the dismay of his family -- Herbert married beatnik Claire Pelly. Although he gave the impression of anything but royalty (he was frequently seen in such counter-culture duds as flared trousers), his father's 1969 death found the 29-year-old earl sacrificing his filmmaking career and taking on numerous, more-pressing responsibilities when he inherited new titles. He wasn't away from the business for long, however, and his family's country house served as the setting for numerous films, including 1989's Scandal. Herbert slowly began balancing his royal duties with his filmmaking aspirations, resulting in such productions as 1973's Malachi's Cove and Forbidden Passion (1986), a costume drama featuring actor Michael Gambon in the role of literary legend Oscar Wilde -- one of numerous British television dramas the director made during the '80s. Herbert died of cancer October 14, 2003, in Wiltshire, U.K. He was 64.

~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide