Editing Michael Winner (section)

==Early life and education==
Winner was born at 40 Belsize Grove, [[Belsize Park]], [[Hampstead]], London,. the only child<ref name="telegraph1"/> of Jewish parents<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4495289.stm Faces of the week], ''BBC News'', 29 April 2005. Accessed 28 August 2009.</ref> George Joseph Winner (1910–1975), of [[Russian-Jewish]] origin, and Helen (née Zlota; January 1906 – May 1984), who was born in Poland.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/eating_out/winners_dinners/article2935544.ece | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629121546/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/eating_out/winners_dinners/article2935544.ece | url-status=dead | archive-date=29 June 2011 | location=London | work=The Times | first=Michael | last=Winner | title=Great Queen Street | date=25 November 2007}}</ref> His mother had emigrated to the UK in 1932 with her parents and a brother,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.winnersdinners.com/reviews/2007/20071104.php | title=Winner's Dinners - Decent borscht and this are poles apart }}</ref> and later anglicised her name from ‘Chana Rosa’ to ‘Helen Rose’.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/10562410:7579?tid=&pid=&queryid=5092aa8e-2286-4670-8332-9a3034ef3157&_phsrc=UGY1&_phstart=successSource | title=Join Ancestry® }}</ref> His father - who was a [[Freemason]] and belonged to the same Masonic Lodge as [[Tommy Cooper]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.winnersdinners.com/reviews/2007/20071125.php | title=Winner's Dinners - Don't look up the restaurant with no name }}</ref> - was a businessman and company director responsible for running a branch of the Winner's clothing chain founded by his own father, who became a naturalised British citizen in 1910.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-106011|title=Winner, (Robert) Michael (1935–2013), film-maker and food critic|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/106011|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref><ref>Michael Winner: Winner Takes All- A Life of Sorts, Michael Winner, 2013</ref><ref name=filmr>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/19/Michael-Winner.html |title=Michael Winner Biography (1935–) |publisher=Filmreference.com |date=30 October 1935 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/10/my-family-values-michael-winner | location=London | work=[[The Guardian]] | first=Nick | last=McGrath | title=Michael Winner: My family values | date=10 October 2009}}</ref> His mother died at the age of 78, in 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=207902&apid=112016 |title=Overview for Michael Winner |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=19 October 2011}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Winner was educated at [[St Christopher School]], [[Letchworth]], and [[Downing College, Cambridge]], where he read law and economics. He also edited the university's student newspaper, ''[[Varsity (Cambridge)|Varsity]]'', and was the youngest ever editor up to that time, both in age and in terms of his university career (being only in the second term of his second year). Winner had earlier written a newspaper column, "Michael Winner's Showbiz Gossip", in the ''Kensington Post'' from the age of fourteen. The first issue of ''Showgirl Glamour Revue'' in 1955 had him writing another film and show-business gossip column, "Winner's World".<ref>[http://www.magforum.com/mens/mensmagazinesatoz10.htm#shg Showgirl Glamour Revue (closed)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118191405/http://www.magforum.com/mens/mensmagazinesatoz10.htm |date=18 January 2009 }}. A-Z of Men's Magazines</ref> Such jobs allowed him to meet and interview several leading film personalities, including [[James Stewart]] and [[Marlene Dietrich]]. He also wrote for the ''[[New Musical Express]]''.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1836411.stm NME: Still rocking at 50]. BBC.co.uk (24 February 2002).</ref>

Winner claimed in his memoirs that he avoided [[Conscription in the United Kingdom#After 1945|National Service]] by pretending to be gay.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dodging-national-service-a-dishonourable-tradition-2029753.html | title=Dodging national service: A dishonourable tradition | website=[[Independent.co.uk]] | date=18 July 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/michael-winner-dead-film-director-1547982 | title=Kind, funny, generous, and Britain's 38th most annoying man: Film director Michael Winner dies aged 77 | website=[[Daily Mirror]] | date=21 January 2013 }}</ref>