Eddie Fowlie - a life in film

"Eddie was the only one who told it to me straight. Everyone else on the crew thought it might be OK, so that I was the one who fell in it if it wasn’t” David Lean

"If the director wanted a thousand butterflies on the set the next day, Eddie would say 'no problem'" Geraldine Chaplin

Property master, locations expert, special effects wizard: Eddie Fowlie’s long list of film credits is testimony to his vast experience working on some of the biggest movies ever made.
John Lennon, Joan Collins, Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Gregory Peck, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Alec Guinness and George Raft – Eddie worked with them all.
Outspoken and irreverent, Fowlie recounts his extraordinary life in films in a wildly entertaining and inspiring autobiography. Meet the man who drove the train during its final moments in The Bridge on the River Kwai, blew John Lennon up in How I Won the War, hoodwinked Oliver Reed into thinking he was an expert swordsman in The Three Musketeers, turned down an offer to work with Stanley Kubrick, doubled for Joan Collins in a bikini… and stole Boris Karloff’s birthday cake.
Discover some of the best kept special effects secrets in film history. How was the Ice Palace in Doctor Zhivago created? How do you cover miles of Spanish countryside in snow during the height of summer? How do you blow up a bridge without using computer animation? and how do you make dry quicksand in the desert, where there is no quicksand?

TOP PHOTO: Besides working in films, Eddie also achieved the remarkable feat of discovering explorer James Cook’s lost anchor in Tahiti. Here's Eddie posing with his prized catch (Photo: David Lean)
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David Lean is widely regarded as one of history’s greatest film directors. Epics like Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and The Bridge on the River Kwai have left an indelible mark in film history, inspiring generations of cinema goers and film makers such as Steven Spielberg
A highly private person, Lean was also an enigma to those who worked with him, but no-one knew David Lean better than Eddie Fowlie or worked in as many of his movies. As Lean’s closest personal friend, Eddie reveals details of the legendary director’s life in his forthcoming and outrageously funny autobiography, A Dedicated Maniac – memoirs of a film specialist.

ABOVE: From left to right: Robert Bolt, David Lean and Eddie in Tahiti

Peter O'Toole hands Eddie a cup of water as he prepares to pull the hapless Daud under the sand in the film Lawrence of Arabia

Eddie looks on as the scene is played out (Peter O'Toole in white)

Say cheese - Eddie takes a snap of David Lean