Francis Rodker

(1910-1984)

Born in Whitechapel, London on 23 Jun 1910, Francis Ephraim Judah Rodker was the the son of Brick Lane drapers Moses and Sarah Rodker, who had emigrated to London from Warsaw in 1895.

Around 1935 he was employed as diagram animator by the newly-formed Shell Film Unit, and in late 1936 he married Bertha Judith Maccoby. They set up home on Haverstock Hill NW3, moving out to Kingston-upon-Thames about 1947, where they raised three children.

In his Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, Ian Aitken writes:

    Shell Film Unit's first film was Airport (Roy Lockwood, 1935) but Power Unit (D'Arcy Cartwright, 1937) was its first substantial success. Its success was followed by that of Transfer of Power (Geoffrey Bell, 1939). which explains with remarkable clarity and precision the development of the toothed wheel. It and the six-part How an Aeroplane Flies (1947), and The Cornish Engine (Philip Armitage, 1948), and other outstanding Shell films were all produced by [Arthur] Elton. Francis Rodker's animated diagrams made an important contribution to such Shell films.

In the 1957 British Film Academy 'Journal' John Huntley, reporting on the state of Animation in Britain, states:

    Francis Rodker and a small team of specialists have been producing excellent diagrams and animated sections for the Shell Unit since its formation in 1935. Three animation cameras are in use, each producing about 4,000 feet of exposed film a year.

The animators who worked under him at the Shell Film Unit included Cynthia Whitby, Archie Shaw and Leslie Davie.

In the 1960s he formed his own company, Francis Rodker Animation Ltd, at Whitfield St W1, and continued to produce diagram animation for the Shell Film Unit and other documentary companies, as well as film title sequences.

He died on 15 Sep 1984 at Kingston-upon-Thames, aged 74.

Filmography

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