Darling John: Maverick director John Schlesinger forever changed the face of gay cinema.

In his nearly 40-year career as a film director, John Schlesinger was never one to flinch from controversial material, be it the empty decadence of early-1960s London (Darling), the gritty life of New York City hustlers and gigolos (Midnight Cowboy), or the simple gesture of a close-up romantic kiss between two men when such scenes were unheard of (Sunday Bloody Sunday). Indeed, all three of these films were landmarks in their frank portrayal of gay characters and themes, and the openly gay Schlesinger made no apologies for them. After a long battle with failing health following a stroke in December 2000, he died July 25 in Palm Springs, Calif., at the age of 77.

While he is best known for directing 1969's Cowboy--the first and only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best, Pietm'e (it also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay)--the London-born Schleshiger began his career as an actor. Trained at the Oxford University Dramatic Society, he had a keen eye for talent, casting Julie Christie in her first major role in 1963's Billy Liar. Schlesinger could also be quite mischievous. "He did not think much of me as an actress--and took great relish in telling me so," remembered Christie in the British newspaper The Guardian. She went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress for their next collaboration, 1965's Darling.

The surprise success of Midnight Cowboy, Schlesinger's first Hollywood movie, gave him the clout to make Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1971, which he called, in a 2002 E-mail interview with Advocate.com, "the story of my life." An understated character study about a family physician (Peter Finch) and a divorced woman (Glenda Jackson) involved with the same young male London artist, Sunday was perhaps the first major film to portray a romantic relationship between two men as simply--and not so simply--a relationship.

"I think this was a breakthrough film," Schlesinger wrote, "where gay characters were not tortured, suicidal, mean, bitchy, dishonorable, or tragic--they were portrayed as normal, loving human beings with real lives, real careers, [and] real feelings filled with compassion." Schlesinger continued to include gay roles and subjects in his films for the rest of his career, including Marathon Man, (1976), An Englishman Abroad (1983), and his last film, The Next Best Thing (2000), starring Madonna and Rupert Everett.

Schlesinger is survived by his partner of more than 30 years, photographer Michael Childers, who remembers him as "amazingly brilliant, compassionate, witty, generous, and enormously loyal.... We cherish John's many legacies."

Vary also writes for Entertainment Weekly.