Barrie Ellis-Jones obituary

My grandfather Barrie Ellis-Jones, who has died of cancer aged 84, had a successful career in European film, culminating in becoming executive director of the film funding body Eurimages in 1994.

During his two years there, based in Strasbourg, Eurimages supported 68 feature films, including the prestigious Ulysses’ Gaze, and 19 documentaries. But in 1996 the UK government withdrew its funding and, although not required to, out of principle Barrie resigned and returned to the UK.

He was born in Sheffield, the eldest of three children of David Ellis-Jones, a company director, and his wife, Dorice (nee Greatorex). Barrie had an aptitude for languages and, after leaving Taunton’s grammar school, Southampton, he went to the University of Nottingham to study modern languages, spending 1961 in Berlin, where he saw the wall being built. He smuggled western books into East Berlin and was questioned by guards who did not believe this blond man fluent in German was British.

In his last year at Nottingham he met Clare Sansbury and they were married in 1964. Unsure of his direction, Barrie took a position as a language lecturer at the University of East Anglia. However, he yearned to be a writer. Barrie was a great storyteller and very funny, hiding his intelligence with an easy charm.

He landed a commission to compile an English-German dictionary for Collins, and decided to relocate his growing family to Crieff, Perthshire. He also translated Martin Walser’s The Unicorn from German (1971), and wrote two books, The Cinema (1977) and a ghost story, The Walker After Death (1979).

It was luck that pushed him towards film funding and promotion. Through a friend, in 1974 he got a job with Films of Scotland in Edinburgh. Three years later he became a regional officer for the British Film Institute. After being a departmental head, he became acting deputy director for a short time under Wilf Stevenson.

Barrie and Clare had separated in 1980, and in 1984 he married Lori Keating.

In 1990 Barrie was seconded to the European Film Academy to organise the 3rd European Film Awards in Glasgow. Then, in 1994 he joined Eurimages. This was a job made for him, rushing around Europe for meetings, premieres and festivals, and trying to align diaries to see an equally busy Lori, who was attached to a Council of Europe project. They loved it.

After Barrie left Eurimages, he and Lori wrote a film script together and united with Terry Jones, of the Monty Python team, to develop it. After a while it was clear it would not happen and Barrie and Lori decided that a quieter life was calling.

They settled in Lydd-on-Sea, on the Kent coast, but that was not quite quiet enough. In 2012 they moved to Prince Edward Island, Canada, where life consisted mostly of cooking and caring for the couple’s beloved cats, Betty and Humphrey.

Barrie is survived by Lori, his sons, James, Richard and Daniel, and five grandchildren, and his younger brother and sister.