John Hastings Turner
{{Short description|English novelist, dramatist and theatre director (1892–1956)}}
{{Portal|England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use Irish English|date=June 2019}}
{{infobox person
| image =
| caption=
| name = John Hastings Turner
| birth_place = England
| birth_date = 16 December 1892
| death_place= Norfolk
| death_date = 29 February 1956 (aged 63)
| occupation = Novelist, dramatist/playwright, theatre and film director
| spouse = Laura Cowie
}}
John Hastings Turner (16 December 1892 – 29 February 1956), frequently referred to as Hastings Turner or J. Hastings Turner, was an English novelist, dramatist and theatre director. His works were filmed and performed on stage and in film in Britain and the United States from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Biography
Turner married the Scottish silent film actress, Laura Cowie, on 20 June 1918. They later settled in Blue Tiles Farm near Fakenham, Norfolk.{{cite web|title=From Rothiemay To The Silver Screen|url=http://www.rothi.co.uk/people13.html|website=www.rothi.co.uk|access-date=22 June 2019|archive-date=1 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901183037/http://www.rothi.co.uk/people13.html|url-status=dead}}
During the First World War Turner wrote three plays: Nothing New, Peace Time Prophecies or Stories Gone Wrong and Tails Up.{{Cite web|title=John Hastings Turner|url=https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/1151/|last=|first=|date=|website=Great War Theatre|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=26 May 2020}} An early published novel of his from 1919, Simple Souls,{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/simplesouls01turngoog/page/n7|title=Simple Souls|website=archive.org|access-date=26 June 2019}} was made into a movie in 1920 with a scenario by Fred Myton, directed by the American Robert Thornby.{{cite web|title=Simple Souls (1920)|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0011696/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_16|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}} In 1926, Turner's play The Scarlet Lady,{{cite web|url=http://ernestthesiger.org/Ernest_Thesiger/The_Scarlet_Lady.html|title=The Scarlet Lady|website=ernestthesiger.org|access-date=27 June 2019}} a comedy, opened at the Criterion Theatre in London, starring Marie Tempest, a friend and the driving force behind the establishment of the actors' union Equity. Supporting Tempest was an ingénue, Fabia Drake, who became Tempest's firm confidante and then Turner's sister-in-law through marriage to his barrister brother, Maxwell Turner.{{cite book|last=Drake|first=Fabia|title=Blind Fortune|pages=112, 120|publisher=William Kimber|location=London|year=1978}}
His comedy, The Spot on the Sun, played in Australia in 1931.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224694494 |title=Witty Play |newspaper=The Sun (Sydney) |issue=1467 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 May 1931 |access-date=4 June 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Thereafter, in addition to his solo work, Turner collaborated with other writers, notably Roland Pertwee, with whom he wrote plays, scenarios or dialogues for a number of productions in the early 1930s, including a series of movies directed by John Daumery and William C. McGann, and Irving Asher's now-lost 1935 U.K. production Murder at Monte Carlo directed by Michael Barringer and starring Errol Flynn in his first major role.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0877660/?ref_=nv_sr_3?ref_=nv_sr_3|title=John Hastings Turner|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}}{{cite web|title=Murder at Monte Carlo|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025527/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}} Turner's work was performed by other leading actors including Margot Grahame (A Letter of Warning, 1932{{cite web|title=A Letter of Warning|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183401/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}}), Nora Swinburne (A Voice Said Goodnight, 1932,{{cite web|title=A Voice Said Good Night|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418301/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}}{{cite web|title=A Voice Said Good Night|url=https://www.movie-trailer.co.uk/trailers/1932/a-voice-said-goodnight/|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=26 June 2019}} Cedric Hardwicke, Boris Karloff and Ralph Richardson (The Ghoul, 1933{{cite web|title=The Ghoul|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024055/?ref_=nv_sr_4?ref_=nv_sr_4|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}}), and Jane Baxter (The Night of the Party, 1935, directed by Michael Powell.{{cite web|title=The Night of the Party|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025564/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1|website=www.imdb.com|access-date=22 June 2019}}
From the late 1930s, Turner did some writing – and Cowie occasional acting – for productions by The Rank Organisation, which had bought film studios like Gaumont-British that Turner had previously worked for.
References
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Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Category:English male novelists
Category:20th-century English novelists