Brian Clark (writer)

{{Short description|British playwright and television writer (1932–2021)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Brian Clark

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1932|6|3}}

| birth_place = Bournemouth, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2021|11|16|1932|6|3}}

| death_place =

| occupation = Playwright, screenwriter

| nationality = British

| alma_mater = Central School of Speech and Drama
University of Nottingham

| period = 1970–2021

| awards = {{nowrap|Society of West End Theatre Award (1978)}}

}}

Brian Robert Clark (3 June 1932 – 16 November 2021) was a British playwright and screenwriter, best known for his play Whose Life Is It Anyway?, which he later adapted into a screenplay.

Early life

Clark was born on 3 June 1932 in Bristol, United Kingdom, the son of a blacksmith.{{cite news|last=Hayward|first=Anthony |title=Brian Clark obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/dec/05/brian-clark-obituary |access-date=5 December 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=5 December 2021}}

He attended Bristol Grammar School, leaving at 16.The Stage Thursday 24 July 1986, page 10 Clark was educated at the University of Nottingham. He married Maggie Clark, his first wife, and raised two sons.

Career

Clark taught in schools, colleges and universities and was a member of the Drama Department at the University of Hull from 1968 to 1972.

In 1970, he sold a television play, Rubber? Some years after its television production, he adapted the script for the stage. The reworked version won a Society of West End Theaters Award in 1978. Later that year, he brought the play to the United States, first at the Folger in Washington, D.C., followed by its Broadway debut the following year.{{cite book |title=The Best Plays of SIEBEN |last=Guernsey Jr. (Ed.) |first=Otis L. |year=1979 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |location=New York & Toronto |isbn=0-396-07723-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bestplaysof1978100guer/page/298 298–314] |url=https://archive.org/details/bestplaysof1978100guer/page/298 |url-access=registration }} In 1975 he wrote Whose Life is it Anyway a play exploring the theme of assisted suicide. Clark subsequently adapted the piece into a film released in 1981. He wrote other television plays including Easy Go, Operation Magic Carpet, The Saturday Party, and The Country Party. Clark wrote the first episode of All Creatures Great and Small (1978). The television series Telford's Change (1979), concerns an international banker downsizing to being a branch manager, the central role being performed by Peter Barkworth.

Clark also wrote Group Theatre, published in 1971 by Theatre Arts Books, in which he summarized the group theatre movement and outlined three approaches to group theatre. He was also the founder of Amber Press Publishers. Clark latterly lived in Brighton with his second wife, a writer and therapist. He died from an aortic aneurysm on 16 November 2021, at the age of 89.

Awards and nominations

1978 Society of West End Theaters Award for Whose Life Is It Anyway?
1979 Selection, The Burns Mantle Theatre Yearbook, The Best Plays of 1978-1979 for Whose Life Is It Anyway?
1979 Tony Award nominee, Best Play for Whose Life Is It Anyway?

{{cite web

|url=http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=4595

|title= Brian Clark

|publisher=Internet Broadway Database

|location= New York, New York

|access-date=6 December 2009

}}