Ken Russell R.I.P.

KEN RUSSELL, 84, the controversial U.K. director, died in his sleep. The filmmaker’s movies included the Oliver Reed-Vanessa Redgrave vehicle The Devils, the adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love (known for its infamous nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed), the screen version of The Who’s rock opera Tommy, The Music Lovers, with Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky, and the Roger Daltrey-starring Lisztomania. In the U.S., he directed the psychedelic Altered States, a collaboration with screenwriter Paddy Chayevsky. The failure of his next film, Crimes of Passion, sent him back to Britain, where he continued making films, the last of which was The Fall of the Louse of Usher, the 2002 horror movie based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe. (11/28a)