Beverley Cross
{{Short description|British screenwriter (1931–1998)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alan Beverley Cross
| birth_place = London, England
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1931|4|13}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1998|3|20|1931|4|13}}
| death_place = London, England
| occupation = Screenwriter, playwright
| yearsactive = 1960–1998
| spouse = {{ubl
| {{marriage|Elizabeth Clunies-Ross|1955|end=div}}
| {{marriage|Gayden Collins|1965|end=div}}
| {{marriage|Maggie Smith
|1975}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/30/arts/beverley-cross-66-playwright-and-librettist.html|title=Alan Beverley Cross, 66, Playwright and Librettist |first=Sarah |last=Lyall |date=30 March 1998|newspaper=The New York Times |accessdate=17 September 2017}}
}}
| relatives = Chris Larkin (step-son)
Toby Stephens (step-son)
}}
Alan Beverley Cross{{cite book |title=The Writers Directory 1980-1982 |publisher=Macmillan Press |date=1979 |page=278}} (13 April 1931 – 20 March 1998) was an English playwright, librettist, and screenwriter.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/25/archives/screen-the-long-shipswidmark-and-poitier-in-viking-adventure.html |title=The Long Ships (1963) Screen: 'The Long Ships': Widmark and Poitier in Viking Adventure |first=Howard |last=Thompson |date=25 June 1964 |newspaper=The New York Times |accessdate=26 January 2019}}
Early life
Born in London into a theatrical family, and educated at the Nautical College Pangbourne, Cross started off by writing children's plays in the 1950s. He achieved instant success with his first play, One More River, which dealt with a mutiny in which a crew puts its first officer on trial for manslaughter. The play premiered in 1958 at the New Shakespeare Theatre Liverpool, starring Robert Shaw, directed by Sam Wanamaker, and in 1959, still with Robert Shaw, directed by Guy Hamilton at the Duke of York's Theatre in London.
Career
Cross' second play, Strip the Willow, was to make a star out of his future wife, Maggie Smith, though the play never received a London production. In 1962, he translated Marc Camoletti's French farce Boeing Boeing, which had a lengthy run in the West End. In 1964, he directed the play in Sydney. Another success was Half a Sixpence,{{cite book
|last= Stevens
|first= Christopher
|title= Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams
|publisher= John Murray
|year= 2010
|isbn = 978-1-84854-195-5
|page=381
}} a musical comedy based on the H. G. Wells novel Kipps, for which he wrote the book, and for which he received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Author. This opened in 1963, and like his first play, ran in London for more than a year.
He also wrote opera librettos for Richard Rodney Bennett (The Mines of Sulphur, All the King's Men, and Victory) and Nicholas Maw (The Rising of the Moon).
Cross later became well known for his screenplays, including Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Long Ships (1964), Genghis Khan (1965), and Clash of the Titans (1981). He also adapted Half a Sixpence for the 1967 film version. He also worked uncredited on the script for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), although whether any of his material made it to the final edit is unknown.
Personal life
He had known Maggie Smith since her years acting in Oxford in the 1950s, but they did not marry until 1975, following the end of Smith's marriage to Robert Stephens.{{cite news |last1=Coveney |first1=Michael |title=Dame Maggie Smith obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/sep/27/dame-maggie-smith-obituary |access-date=29 September 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=27 September 2024}} He was the stepfather of Smith's children from that marriage, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens. He died in London in 1998 aged 66 from an aneurysm.{{Cite web |last=Lyall |first=Sarah |date=30 March 1998 |title=Beverley Cross, 66, Playwright and Librettist |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/30/arts/beverley-cross-66-playwright-and-librettist.html#:~:text=Beverley%20Cross%2C%20the%20playwright%2C%20librettist,for%20a%20series%20of%20aneurysms. |website=The New York Times}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0189117}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Alan Beverley}}
Category:Place of birth missing
Category:English male screenwriters
Category:English opera librettists
Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Category:English male dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English male writers