Article

Budge Crawley

Published Online October 30, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Frank Radford Crawley, "Budge," film producer (b at Ottawa 14 Nov 1911; d at Toronto 13 May 1987). Through his company Crawley Films, he produced hundreds of films over his 40-year career. His vitality and enthusiasm and his enterprising nature enabled him to turn his filmmaking hobby into a career.

Frank Radford Crawley

Frank Radford Crawley, "Budge," film producer (b at Ottawa 14 Nov 1911; d at Toronto 13 May 1987). Through his company Crawley Films, he produced hundreds of films over his 40-year career. His vitality and enthusiasm and his enterprising nature enabled him to turn his filmmaking hobby into a career. Île d'Orléans (1938), a film he made on his honeymoon, won the Hiram Percy Maxim Award for best amateur film in 1939. With the outbreak of war there was a pressing need for training films; John GRIERSON hired Crawley's fledgling company to make many of them. After the war Crawley Films survived by making films for government and corporate sponsors. The Loon's Necklace (1948) won Film of the Year honours at the first Canadian Film Awards, 1949. Newfoundland Scene (1950), The Power Within (1953), The Legend of the Raven (1958) and The Entertainers (1967) were all award winners.

In the late 1950s Crawley moved his company into TV production and developed an animation studio. Crawley's interest increasingly turned to feature films. Amanita Pestilens (1963) was quickly followed by the acclaimed The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964). Crawley also produced the popular The Rowdyman (1972), starring Gordon PINSENT. He also worked closely with his wife, Judith CRAWLEY, and their best-known film, THE MAN WHO SKIED DOWN EVEREST (1975), won the Academy Award for feature-length documentary.