This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life
Film poster by Renato Fratini
Directed by	Lindsay Anderson
Screenplay by	David Storey
Based on	This Sporting Life by David Storey
Produced by	Karel Reisz
Starring	Richard Harris Rachel Roberts Alan Badel William Hartnell
Cinematography	Denys Coop
Edited by	Peter Taylor
Music by	Roberto Gerhard
Production company	Independent Artists
Distributed by	Rank Organisation
Release dates	7 February 1963 (1963-02-07) (London, West End)
Running time	134 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£230,000[1] or £197,381[2]

This Sporting Life is a 1963 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson. Based on the 1960 novel of the same name by David Storey, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award, it recounts the story of a rugby league footballer in Wakefield, a mining city in Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life. Storey, a former professional rugby league footballer, also wrote the screenplay.

The film stars Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, William Hartnell, and Alan Badel. It was Harris's first starring role, and won him the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.^[3] He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. For her work in the film, Roberts won her second BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 7 February 1963.^[4]