John Badham, an English-American director and producer born in Luton, England, on August 25, 1939, is a key figure in Hollywood genre cinema. After a solid apprenticeship in television during the 1970s, where he directed episodes of popular series like The Streets of San Francisco, he burst onto the film scene with the cultural phenomenon Saturday Night Fever (1977). This film not only launched John Travolta to stardom and defined the disco aesthetic but also established Badham's reputation as a craftsman capable of blending blockbuster entertainment with a keen sense of rhythm. He confirmed his talent for capturing the zeitgeist with the tech-thriller WarGames (1983), a Cold War cult classic. His versatile filmography includes hits like Blue Thunder (1983), Short Circuit (1986), and Stakeout (1987). In recent years, he has actively returned to television directing and has authored books on directing.