Jeremy Summers, who was born in St Albans in 1931 to Dora, an actor, and Walter Summers, a film director and screenplay writer, died on December 14 at the age of 85. Summers began working as a runner at Elstree Studios, in Borehamwood, when he was 16 and became an assistant director on films such as The Dam Busters and Moby Dick . His son Julian Summers said: “Walter had come back from the second world war a physical and nervous wreck and had already acquired a reputation in the film industry for being difficult.