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).
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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 US. 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 he returned to America, 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.
Novels
The Wicker Man (1978) (with Anthony Shaffer)
Don Juan, 1921–1946 (1979)
The Education of Don Juan (1980)
Don Juan's New World: America 1945 (1985)
Call of the Wendigo (1993)
The Killer's Club (1994)
Cowboys for Christ (2006) (aka The Wicker Tree)
Peace Breaks Out (2017) (with Donough O'Brien)