Robin Hardy

Q: When did Robin Hardy die?

Robin Hardy died on July 1, 2016.

Q: How old was Robin Hardy when they died?

Robin Hardy was 86 years old at the time of death.

Robin St. Clair Rimington Hardy (2 October 1929 – 1 July 2016) was an English author and film director. His most famous directorial work is The Wicker Man (1973), and his last project was a film adaptation of his novel Cowboys for Christ, which was retitled The Wicker Tree (2011).

Early life

Hardy was born in Wimbledon, London, and went to Bradfield College. He studied art in Paris.

Career

Hardy began directing for the National Film Board of Canada and for the Esso World Theater strand on the PBS channel in the United States. Upon returning to London, he co-founded the advertising agency Hardy Shaffer Ferguson Avery with playwright and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, and collaborated with Shaffer in making The Wicker Man (1973), a folk horror film starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. After that, Hardy returned to the US, where he made commercials. He later wrote historical novels and was involved in creating historical theme parks in the US. In addition to Cowboys for Christ, Hardy published a novelization of The Wicker Man, as well as the novel The Education of Don Juan.

Hardy had expressed interest in producing a finale to his loose Wicker Man trilogy titled The Wrath of the Gods. In 2015, a crowdfunding campaign was set up to raise funds for the film's production, but ultimately fell short of its US$210,000 target.

The Wicker Man has a cult status among horror fans, and inspired a 2006 remake starring Nicolas Cage.

Death

Hardy died on 1 July 2016; he was survived by his fifth wife, Victoria Webster (married 2000), and seven children. His son, Justin Hardy, who followed him into filmmaking, died of a heart attack on July 31, 2026, having just finished work on a sequel, titled Wrath of the Gods, to his father's most famous film.