An institution. Always ‘the indefatigable Sir Dickie’. The professional’s professional. Never approaches the cinematic wicket at half-cock, however small the job. Only a lifetime of helming big budget epics with a cast of thousands could have given him the wherewithal to convince so utterly as the avuncular dinosaur farmer in Jurassic Park. No need to explain why. When reviewing an old film of his for the Guardian Guide, always affect to be amazed that he was ever less than sixty years old.
