Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes (1926–2013) was an English filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, actor, and novelist often called a Renaissance man of British cinema. Born John Theobald Clarke in Forest Gate, London, he appeared as a minor actor through the late 1940s and 1950s — often in army uniform — before turning to writing and then directing. In 1959 he co-founded Beaver Films with Richard Attenborough; their first production, The Angry Silence, anchored a string of socially conscious British features. He made his directorial debut with the lyrical Whistle Down the Wind (1961), the story of three northern children who hide a fugitive in their barn convinced he is the returned Christ, and followed with The L-Shaped Room (1962), which earned Leslie Caron Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations. He also directed Séance on a Wet Afternoon, King Rat, and The Stepford Wives. He was made a CBE in 2004.