James Becket

Director · Writer · Cast

Born

October 5, 1936 · New York City, New York, USA

Died

September 22, 2026

Birth name

James Campbell Becket

Jim Becket grew up in Lakeville, Connecticut, a small New England town. He had two ambitions, one was to make the Olympic ski team (no, broken leg wrong year), the other to become a writer (yes). There was no role model to go into films with a country lawyer father and piano teacher mother, so a number of years were wasted on a first class education (Harvard Law School and doctorate in Switzerland - good skiing). His film school was making the movie Que Hacer in Chile during the election of Salvador Allende. Seven years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees took him around the world filming refugee crises. And then making the big move to Hollywood, so a late start in writing and directing. But he finally found the vehicle for his passion in film, the art that combines all the arts. He lives in Ojai, California with his wife, Camilla, and fifteen year-old daughter Lydia. Lydia has epilepsy which resulted in making a number of films for parents who first receive the diagnosis that their child has this seizure disorder. In the last years he has made a number of documentaries mainly on environmental issues.