Perry Henzell was a white Jamaican born on the sugar estate managed by his father in Port Maria, Jamaica.

After graduating from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Henzell emigrated to the United Kingdom where he found work shifting scenery for BBC-TV.

Henzell was later promoted at the BBC to the position of floor manager for live TV broadcasts.

In 1959, Henzell relocated to Jamaica and founded Vista Productions, which specialized in cinema commercials.

While mixing the music for his ads at Kingston's Federal Records, Henzell heard reggae music for the first time.

The Harder They Come is based on the exploits of Vincent Martin, aka Ivanhoe Martin, aka Rhyging (patois for "angry" but derived from "raging"), a West Kingston burglar and prison escapee who became a folk hero before being gunned down by Jamaican police on September 9, 1948.

Perry Henzell was also influenced in writing The Harder They Come by Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966) and by the work of John Cassavetes.

Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on April 1, 1948. Coincidentally, Cliff and the real "Ivanhoe Martin" both grew up in St. Catherine.

Like his character in The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff was a Jamaican "countryboy" whose Christian parents forbid him to listen to popular music.

Cliff realized his love for singing while attending his parents' Pentecostal Church in Somerton, Jamaica.

The future reggae superstar once worked as a newsboy singing the headlines of The Gleaner and Star newspapers.

When his father bought him a battery-powered transistor radio, Cliff was able to hear calypso, Latin music and rock-and-roll from stations in New Orleans, Miami and Cuba.

Cliff came to Jamaica in 1962 with the intention of enrolling in technical school. While engaged in his studies, he entered contests and auditioned tirelessly for work as a singer.

After Cliff performed a song written specifically for Leslie Kong, a Kingston restaurateur and start-up record producer, the pair struck a profitable partnership.

Cliff was only 14 when he recorded his first hit single, "Hurricane Hattie," named for a category 5 storm system that had slammed the Caribbean Sea in 1961.

While appearing at the 1964 World's Fair, Cliff met music producer Chris Blackwell, who convinced him to relocate to London and sign with Island Records.

Chris Blackwell suggested Cliff for the lead role in The Harder They Come and contributed $3,000 to the budget.

Cliff converted from Rastafari to the Muslim faith after the filming of The Harder They Come, although he no longer recognizes any organized religion.

Perry Henzell began filming a follow-up feature to The Harder They Come entitled No Place Like Home, but the project was never completed.

Henzell's subsequent projects were a 1982 novel, Power Game and a 1988 musical based on the life of Marcus Garvey.

In October of 2003, Jimmy Cliff received Jamaica's Order of Merit for his contributions to Jamaican culture.

In 2004, "The Harder They Come" was ranked at 341 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs.

Perry Henzell died of cancer in December 2006.

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:
Perry Henzell obituary by Chris Salewicz, The Independent (London, December 2, 2006
Jimmy Cliff biography, jimmycliff.com
Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White
Transcript of interview with Perry Henzell broadcast by Reggae Radio Station, SkabadiP Ska Radio Show, 1998
Interview with Perry Henzell by Jeremy Sigler, Index Magazine, 2001
Interview with Perry Henzell by Geoff Parker, www.reggaezine.com
Interview with Jimmy Cliff by Graham Brown-Martin, Skywritings, 2003
Interview with Jimmy Cliff by Richard Harrington, Washington Post 2004
Through the 20th Century with The Gleaner: History of a Killer by C. Roy Reynolds, The Gleaner December 2000
Perry Henzell/Jimmy Cliff audio commentary, The Harder They Come DVD
Chris Blackwell interview, The Harder They Come DVD