Mason (right) making a documentary of the 1953 Mille Miglia endurance race in Italy 25–26 April 1953, here sitting in the Ferrari 166 MM with owner and driver Alberico Cacciari.

Rowland Hill Berkeley Mason (9 November 1915 – 17 January 2002),[1] better known as Bill Mason, was an English documentary film maker and scriptwriter.

Life

Mason was born in Kings Norton, Birmingham, England to Elsie Ann (née Berkeley) and Edward Daniel Mason; Elsie's father Rowland Hill Berkeley had been Lord Mayor of Birmingham in 1904-1905.[2] He was a descendant of the postal system reformer Sir Rowland Hill.[3]

Mason was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, between 1929 and 1934.[4] After six months as a stockbroker, he went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read English and joined the Cambridge University Film Society.[5][6][7]

In the 1940s, he moved to Hampstead Heath, London,[8] with his wife and son Nick Mason, who became the drummer of Pink Floyd.[1] A filmmaker and amateur racing car driver, because of a lifelong passion for motor sports Bill Mason specialized in observing them as a maker of documentary films.[8] His enthusiasm for the world of motoring was passed on to his son Nick, who wrote about them in his book Into the Red (2004).[9][10] Mason's success was such that Nick was given an Aston Martin sports car as a teenager.[8]

As well as making films,[11] Mason was also a scriptwriter.[1]

Filmography as director

  • Le Mans 1952 (1952)
  • Mille miglia (1953)
  • History of the Motor Car (1972)
  • Racing Mercedes - Part One (2001)
  • Racing Mercedes - Part Two (2001)
  • Racing Mercedes - Part Three (2001)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bill Mason Archived 2010-01-21 at the Wayback Machine at bfi.org.uk (accessed 16 October 2007)
  2. ↑ "Bill Mason". The British Entertainment History Project. Retrieved 11 December 2021. my grandfather was lord mayor of Birmingham
  3. ↑ Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Post-War Britain, James P. Taylor and Patrick Russell, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019
  4. ↑ Old Greshamian Club Address Book 1999 (Cheverton & Son Ltd., Cromer, 1999)
  5. ↑ Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Post-War Britain, James P. Taylor and Patrick Russell, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019
  6. ↑ The Cambridge University Calendar for the year 1950-51, Cambridge University Press, 1950, p. 806.
  7. ↑ "University News", The Times, 19 June 1937, p. 9.
  8. 1 2 3 Pink Floyd Members Archived 2011-11-04 at the Wayback Machine at angelfire.com (accessed 16 October 2007)
  9. ↑ Into the Red by Nick Mason and Mark Hales (Virgin Books, 2004) ISBN 978-1-85227-225-8
  10. ↑ Review of Into the Red at rbooks.co.uk (accessed 16 October 2007)
  11. ↑ "Bill Mason". The British Entertainment History Project . Retrieved 19 April 2022.
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