British director John Irvin dies at 86

London. The British director John Irvin, known for his film Hamburger Hill and the series The Mole, an adaptation for the BBC of John le Carré's novel of the same name, died at the age of 86, several media outlets reported yesterday.

John Irvin died “peacefully at home” on August 11, surrounded by his family, his producer, Claire Evans, confirmed to the British newspaper The Guardian.

Variety magazine also reported his death, citing the filmmaker's producers.

Nominated three times for the Bafta, John Irvin directed more than thirty films and series throughout a career spanning more than five decades, in which he made documentaries for television and also worked in Hollywood cinema.

Irvin was born on May 7, 1940, in Newcastle, northeast England, studied at the London Film School, and began his career in the 1960s directing documentaries, including Inheritance (1963), about the Algerian War.

In the 1970s, Irvin moved to television, directing in 1979 for the BBC Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Mole, a seven-episode adaptation of John le Carré's novel, with Alec Guinness in the role of British spy George Smiley.

This series won several Bafta television awards and received an Emmy nomination.

John Irvin later continued his career in film, especially in Hollywood.

In the 1980s he directed Ghost Story, starring Fred Astaire, and later Hamburger Hill, released in 1987 and centered on a battle during the Vietnam War.