20 Facts About Bruce Robinson

Bruce Robinson was born on 2 May 1946 and is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist.

Bruce Robinson wrote and directed Withnail and I, a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on his experiences as a struggling actor, living in poverty in Camden Town.

Bruce Robinson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Killing Fields.

Bruce Robinson grew up in Broadstairs, Kent, where he attended the Charles Dickens Secondary Modern School.

Bruce Robinson's parents were Mabel Robinson and American lawyer Carl Casriel, who had a short-term relationship during World War II.

Bruce Robinson had an elder sister Elly, whom he asked to teach him some French.

Bruce Robinson was commissioned by David Puttnam to write the screenplay for Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields.

Bruce Robinson was nominated for an Academy Award and won a BAFTA for his work.

In 1989, Bruce Robinson wrote again for Joffe on Fat Man and Little Boy.

Bruce Robinson returned to acting briefly in 1998, taking a role in the film Still Crazy.

Bruce Robinson is perhaps best known as the creative force behind the loosely autobiographical film Withnail and I which he based on his time as a struggling out-of-work actor.

Bruce Robinson became disillusioned with the restrictive film-making practices of Hollywood and stopped directing to concentrate solely on writing.

Bruce Robinson wrote the screenplays for the films Return to Paradise and In Dreams, but both were altered drastically by their producers, leaving Robinson disappointed.

Bruce Robinson has completed a screenplay for his novel The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman and a book on Jack the Ripper, titled They All Love Jack.

Bruce Robinson's first published work was the semi-autobiographical novel The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman in 1998, based on his own childhood growing up in Broadstairs, Kent.

In 2000, Smoking in Bed: Conversations with Bruce Robinson, edited by Alistair Owen, was published, made up of a selection of interviews given by Robinson.

Meanwhile, since becoming a father, Bruce Robinson has written two children's books, The Obvious Elephant and Harold and the Duck, both illustrated by his wife.

Bruce Robinson spent about 15 years collecting and researching the materials on the mystery of Jack the Ripper, which later became his book They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper.

Bruce Robinson married artist Sophie Windham in 1984, and they live in England.

Bruce Robinson says that the lecherous character of Uncle Monty in the film Withnail and I was influenced by Zeffirelli.