Ross directed the eight-part adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House, which won three BAFTAs. His documentary about Native Americans, Now that the Buffalo's Gone, won a Blue Riband Award. He was one of the two directors engaged on Goal!, about the World Cup Competition being held in England in 1966. Goal! received the Robert Flaherty Award from BAFTA.
Born and raised in South Africa, Ross Devenish studied film-making in London.
He started his career in the 1960s with documentaries. He filmed behind the Royalist lines during part of the North Yemen Civil War (1962-1970). He secretly entered the besieged town of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and filmed the mercenaries trapped there after a failed coup. The next year he filmed in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
After that Devenish traveled to the United States, where he spent most of a year making a film about contemporary Native Americans, called Now that the Buffalo's Gone.
Deciding to concentrate on his interest in drama, he returned to South Africa and began working with playwright Athol Fugard. Devenish directed Fugard, who acted in a 1973 film adaptation of his play Boesman and Lena.
Devenish directed three additional films with screenplays by Fugard, including The Guest and Marigolds in August, in their native South Africa. The Guest won a Bronze Leopard at Locarno and Marigolds in August a Silver Bear in Berlin.
He has also worked extensively in television, both on TV movies and limited edition series.
