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Although he's British, he has very little profile here, although, like you, plenty of people will have seen his films. Maybe there's something in that. Ridley Scott, John Boorman, Mike Figgis, Sam Mendes and Paul Greengrass (to name just a few) are all British and have made some very successful films in Hollywood, without really establishing an identity through those films. Alan Parker has to be the ultimate for that, moving seamlessly through the likes of Midnight Express, Fame, Mississippi Burning and Angel Heart.
I know Christopher Nolan kind of bucks that trend (not to mention Hitchcock) but I get the feeling the whole idea of directors being auteurs has less significance here than it does for a lot of big name US directors. It might also explain why they get so much work. Apart from being commercially and critically successful, they tend to just get on with making a movie without getting sidelined trying to stamp their identity (or ego?) on everything they do.
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