Bryan Forbes

The multi-talented London-born Bryan Forbes began his career as an actor, establishing himself as a competent supporting player on both stage and screen, but it was as a writer that he finally promoted himself through the ranks. A short story writer and journalist, he received his first screenwriting credit on Jose Ferrer's "The Cockleshell Heroes" (1955), although he previously had made uncredited contributions to "The Black Knight" (1954) and "An Alligator Named Daisy" (also 1955). With Richard Attenborough, Forbes formed the production company Beaver Films in 1959, and their initial offering was "The Angry Silence" (1960), for which Forbes won a British Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay. He then got his first opportunity to direct when he replaced Guy Green at the helm of Beaver Films' "Whistle Down the Wind" (1961) and delivered a poignant, believable story of childhood innocence, starring Haley Mills as one of three children who discover a fugitive (Alan Bates) and believe him to be Christ.

Forbes followed that success by directing two of his own screenplays, eliciting a fine performance from Leslie Caron facing pregnancy alone in "The L-Shaped Room" (1962) and orchestrating the remarkable, suspense-filled thriller "Seance on a Wet Afternoon" (1964). Though the latter film earned Kim Stanley a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her Method acting, Attenborough as the docile, defeated husband was by far the better of the two leads. "King Rat" (1965), starring George Segal, took Forbes stateside to direct his adaptation of the James Clavell novel and was praised for its many exciting scenes and thoughtful presentation of the effect of captivity on Allied prisoners during World War II. "The Whisperers" (1967) featured Dame Edith Evans' searing portrait of a dotty old lady struggling to stand tall in the face of a hurricane wind of ill-fortune, although the writer-director went for the tear ducts at every possible occasion. The melodrama as a whole may have fallen short of the desired mark, but Evans' riveting performance (one of her best on screen) elevated the film to a work of importance.

In 1969 Forbes accepted the post of production chief at London's EMI-Elstree Studios, which had just swallowed up the Associated British Picture Corporation. Though responsible for a number of notable films during his tenure (Richard Fuest's "And Soon the Darkness" and Leonard Jeffries' "The Railway Children" in 1970 and Joseph Losey's "The Go-Between" and the ballet film "The Tales of Beatrix Potter" in 1971), he encountered hostility for his humane but unwise refusal to downsize, resigning in March 1971 to concentrate on his writing. Since then, he has directed such popular films as "The Stepford Wives" (1974) and the ill-advised sequel "International Velvet" (1978), which he also wrote and produced. Forbes adapted his own best-selling novel "The Endless Game", directing it as a 1990 Showtime cable movie starring George Segal, and collaborated with William Boyd and William Goldman on the screenplay for Attenborough's biopic "Chaplin" (1992). Accused of having no dominant themes or personal style in his films, he has consistently proved himself an actor's director, coaxing fine performances from many of his leads, several of whom (i.e., Caron, Stanley, Evans, Attenborough) have won awards for their work.

• Also Credited As:
  John Theobald Clarke, Truk Thrust
• Born:
  July 22, 1926 in Stratford-at-Bow, England, United Kingdom
• Job Titles:
  Director, Actor, Novelist, Producer, Screenwriter, Executive, Journalist

Family

• Daughter: Emma Forbes. mother, Nanette Newman; acted in two of father s movies, The Raging Moon and International Velvet (1978)
• Daughter: Sarah Forbes. mother, Nanette Newman; has acted in two of father s films, The Whisperers (1967) and The Raging Moon (1970)
• Father: William Theobald Clarke.
• Mother: Judith Clarke.

Education

• Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England

Milestones

• 1942 Became a question master on a BBC radio quiz program, Junior Brains Trust
• 1945 Served in British Army, first in the Intelligence Corps and then in the Combined Forces Entertainment Unit
• 1948 Acted on stage in Gathering Storm
• 1948 Film actor in The Small Back Room
• 1951 Moved to Hollywood with first wife Constance Smith and acted in Raoul Walsh s The World in His Arms (1952) before returning to England alone the following year
• 1953 Wrote article about himself ( Behind the Forbes Frown ) under pseudonym of Paul Ridgway
• 1955 First screenplay credit, Jose Ferrer s The Cockleshell Heroes
• 1959 Joined forces with Richard Attenborough to form a production company called Beaver Films
• 1960 Wrote, co-produced and acted in The Angry Silence , directed by Guy Green and starring Attenborough
• 1961 Acted in The Guns of Navarone
• 1961 Got first directorial assignment, Whistle Down the Wind , when Green dropped out; starred Hayley Mills and Alan Bates and was based on a novel by Mills mother Mary Haley Bell
• 1962 Wrote, directed and played a small part in The L-Shaped Room , based on Lynne Reid Banks novel; star Leslie Caron received a Best Actress Oscar nomination
• 1964 Produced, wrote and directed Seance on a Wet Afternoon , adapted from a novel by Mark McShane; starred Attenborough (who also produced) and Kim Stanley, who was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award
• 1965 On his second more successful trip to Hollywood, directed King Rat , adapted from the James Clavell novel; starred George Segal
• 1966 Bombed with his second film for Columbia, The Wrong Box
• 1967 Produced, directed and wrote The Whisperers , a tour de force for Dame Edith Evans who garnered a Best Actress Academy Award nomination
• 1969 Appointed chief of production and managing director of Associated British (EMI)
• 1969 Directed Katharine Hepburn, Charles Boyer and Evans in The Madwoman of Chaillot , misfire screen version of the Jean Girdeaux play
• 1970 Angered folks at EMI by taking time to make The Raging Moon/Long Ago Tomorrow , even though he worked on film without pay
• 1971 Resigned post at EMI
• 1973 Began as director of Capital Radio
• 1973 Produced and directed two British TV biographies, I Caught Acting Like the Measles (Dame Edith Evans) and Goodbye Norma Jean, and Other Things (Elton John)
• 1974 Directed The Stepford Wives from a screenplay by William Goldman and adapted from the Ira Levin novel
• 1978 Wrote, produced and directed International Velvet , a sequel to 1944 s National Velvet with wife Nanette Newman as the adult Velvet Brown
• 1980 Directed Peter O Toole in Old Vic stage production of Macbeth
• 1980 Directed first TV drama, Jessie , starring Nanette Newman
• 1980 Initial collaboration with Roger Moore, the English segment of the episodic feature Sunday Lovers
• 1980 Wrote screenplay for Hopscotch , starring Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson; from novel by Brian Garfield
• 1985 Adapted and directed Sidney Sheldon s novel The Naked Face , starring Moore
• 1990 Adapted novel The Endless Game as a Showtime TV movie; also directed; reunited with George Segal
• 1992 Collaborated on screenplay (with William Boyd and Goldman) for Attenborough s biopic Chaplin ; ninth feature with Attenborough
• Briefly the fashion critic for SPECTATOR and also wrote for PICTUREGOER (under various pseudonyms)