Lord Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, FRSA is a British film producer. He also sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.
Born in Southgate, London, Puttnam had an early career in advertising and as an agent acting for the photographer David Bailey.
He turned to film production in the late 1960s. His successes as a producer include Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, The Duellists, Chariots of Fire (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), Local Hero, Memphis Belle, Meeting Venus and The Killing Fields and The Mission with Roland Joffé (which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986).
He was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988. He was chairman of the National Film and Television School for 10 years and founded Skillset, which trains young people to become members of the film and television industries. In 2002 he was elected UK president of Unicef and
He is Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance - a collective voice working to ensure that all children and young people have meaningful access to culture in a difficult economic climate.
