Colin Young

Colin Young (5 April 1927 – 27 November 2021) was a British film educator, chairman of the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA, founder of the film program at Rice University, Houston, Texas, and the first director of the British National Film and Television School. He was awarded a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the highest honor of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, in 1993.

Early life Young was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 5 April 1927. He graduated from the University of St Andrews with a degree in Philosophy and Morals.

UCLA At UCLA, Young moved from student to teacher, becoming chairman of the School of Theater, Film and Television in 1965. Graduates during his tenure included Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader, John Milius, Haskell Wexler, Barry Levinson and Lawrence Kasdan. Two of his students became famous one year later under the name of The Doors, Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison. He had a policy of employing filmmakers who were in between jobs to teach: although as David MacDougall said some of them "couldn't teach", despite that "they were infected with the virus of cinema and we caught it from them".

He was particularly involved in the creation of UCLA's Ethnographic Film Program, launched in 1966 inspired by the ideas of Harold Garfinkel, intending to bring film and anthropology together.

Awards As well as the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award he received in 1993, he received an OBE and CBE from the British government and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government.