Beverley Cross

Alan Beverley Cross[2] (13 April 1931 – 20 March 1998) was an English playwright, librettist, and screenwriter.[3]

Beverley Cross
Born	13 April 1931 London, England
Died	20 March 1998 (aged 66) London, England
Occupation	Screenwriter, playwright
Years active	1960–1998
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Clunies-Ross ​ ​ (m. 1955, divorced)​ Gayden Collins ​ ​ (m. 1965, divorced)​ Maggie Smith ​ ​ (m. 1975)​ [1]

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 was staged only in the regions, never receiving 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,[4] a musical comedy based on the H.G. Wells novel Kipps for which he wrote the book. 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 doubtful.

Personal life

He was the stepfather of Maggie Smith's children from her earlier marriage, actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. He died in London in 1998 aged 66.[1]

References

1. Lyall, Sarah (30 March 1998). "Beverley Cross, 66, Playwright and Librettist". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
2. The Writers Directory 1980-1982. Macmillan Press. 1979. p. 278.
3. Thompson, Howard (25 June 1964). "The Long Ships (1963) Screen: 'The Long Ships': Widmark and Poitier in Viking Adventure". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
4. Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 381. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.

External links

• Beverley Cross at IMDb