of the filmmakers union, titled 'I wish I could join' in which he criticised the working condition under which films were made and was instrumental in improving these conditions and increasing the salaries of people working on film sets. Balcon was knighted in 1948. Personal life On 10 April 1924, Balcon married Aileen Freda Leatherman (1904–1988), daughter of Max Jacobs and Beatrice Leatherman, whose families were Jewish immigrants from Poland. She was born in Middlesex, but brought up in Johannesburg, South Africa. The couple enjoyed theatre and opera, loved travel (especially to Italy), and had a wide circle of friends. Lady Balcon was one of a series of society beauties photographed as classical figures by Madame Yevonde. They had two children: Jill (1925–2009), and Jonathan (1931–2012). In 1946, Aileen was appointed an MBE for her war work. Their daughter Jill Balcon became an actress. She met Anglo-Irish poet, Cecil Day-Lewis, and the two started a relationship, marrying in 1951. (He was twenty years older than she and already married when they met. He had two teenage sons, and a mistress.) Michael Balcon was deeply unhappy about the marriage, and became estranged from his daughter as a result. Day-Lewis later was appointed as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. They had two children together (Michael and Aileen's grandchildren): Tamasin Day-Lewis, who became a food critic and television chef, and Daniel Day-Lewis, who became an actor. He has won three Academy Awards in addition to many other awards. In 1977, Balcon died at Upper Parrock, a 15th-century house set on a Sussex hilltop near the Kent border. He and his wife had lived there since the Second World War. He was cremated and his ashes buried there. He was a life-long friend of director Charles Frend with whom he collaborated on a number of Ealing Studio films. Selected filmography Producer References Further reading Balcon, Michael (1969). Michael Balcon presents... A Lifetime of Films (autobiography). London. Hutchinson & Co Duguid, Mark and others (ed.) (2012). Ealing Revisited. BFI External links Michael Balcon biography and credits at BFI Screenonline Michael Balcon in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography personal history of his father by Jonathan Balcon on British Entertainment History Project 1896 births 1977 deaths English film producers British film production company founders English Jews Knights Bachelor People from Birmingham, West Midlands Male actors from Birmingham, West Midlands English people of Polish-Jewish descent English