Barry Spikings

Barry Spikings (born 23 November 1939) is a British film producer who worked in Hollywood. Spikings is best known as a producer of the film The Deer Hunter (1978), which won five Academy Awards.[1][2][3]

Biography

Spikings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. After leaving Boston Grammar School he joined the local newspaper, the Lincolnshire Standard, as a trainee reporter. Later he joined the Farmers' Weekly, where he won a Golden Ear award for a fifteen-minute film that he produced and directed himself.

Spikings then moved to the entertainment world. Initially, he promoted pop music festivals and later films.

British Lion and EMI

In 1972, he became the co-owner of British Lion Films; Spikings later joined EMI when it took over British Lion.[4][5] For the film, The Deer Hunter (1978), Spikings won an Academy Award for Best Picture. The film also garnered awards for several of its actors.[6]

Filmink argued After Deeley left EMI Spikings' choice of films became more risky and less commercial, writing "Spikings deserves all the credit in the world for trying to make intelligent pictures that raised the bar for cinema. He is under-rated as a backer of classy pictures. But he felt ill-suited for his position."[2]

In July 1979 Spikings argued "if you make a good film there is no way you won't make money."[3]

He quit EMI in January 1983 with a year laeft to work on his contract.[7]

Nelson Holdings

In 1985, Spikings formed a Canadian company, Nelson Holdings International, with British financier Richard Northcott, to purchase entertainment firms. Nelson later acquired the home video assets of Embassy Pictures from Coca-Cola and film production companies Galactic Films and the Spikings Corporation, and formed Nelson Entertainment.[8][9] Nelson had the North American home video rights and all international rights to the output from the newly-formed Castle Rock Entertainment.[10]

Spikings served as president of Nelson Entertainment through the early 1990s. Afterwards, he formed a production partnership with Eric Pleskow.[11]

Filmography

Films as studio head

British Lion

EMI Films

References

  1. ^ Vagg, Stephen (19 October 2025). "Forgotten British Moguls: Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings". Filmink. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b Vagg, Stephen (26 October 2025). "Forgotten British Moguls: Barry Spikings". Filmink. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  3. ^ a b Christmas, Linda (18 July 1979). "The man who came to film". The Guardian. p. 10.
  4. ^ "A film script for the City". The Independent. 20 October 1996. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  5. ^ Vagg, Stephen (5 February 2025). "Forgotten British film moguls – Nat Cohen: Part Five (1971-1988)". Filmink. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  6. ^ Biskind, Peter. "The Vietnam Oscars". The Hive. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  7. ^ Walker, Alexander (4 January 1983). "EMI's film chief quits". Evening Standard. p. 9.
  8. ^ Seideman, Tony (16 August 1986). "$85 mil buys Embassy." Billboard (p. 102).
  9. ^ "Archives - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. 6 August 1986.
  10. ^ A film script for the City Griffiths, Ian. The Independent 20 Oct 1996: 7.
  11. ^ "Pleskow, Spikings partner for pix". 14 October 1992.
  12. ^ "IMDb - Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas". IMDb. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
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