25 Facts About Bryan Forbes

Bryan Forbes CBE was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man" and "one of the most important figures in the British film industry".

Bryan Forbes scripted several films directed by others, such as The League of Gentlemen, The Angry Silence and Only Two Can Play.

Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, London.

Bryan Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from age 17, but completed only three terms.

Bryan Forbes completed four years of military service in the Intelligence Corps and Combined Forces Entertainment Unit, during which time he started to write short stories.

Bryan Forbes began to act, appearing on stage and playing numerous supporting roles in British films, in particular An Inspector Calls and The Colditz Story.

Bryan Forbes published a short story collection in the early 1950s, which induced producer "Cubby" Broccoli to offer him screenwriting work on The Black Knight.

Bryan Forbes received his first credit for Second World War film The Cockleshell Heroes, while other early screenplays include I Was Monty's Double, and The League of Gentlemen, his breakthrough.

Bryan Forbes wrote and directed Seance on a Wet Afternoon, and the same year he wrote the third screen adaptation of the Somerset Maugham novel Of Human Bondage.

Bryan Forbes followed this with The Wrong Box and The Whisperers, the latter featuring Edith Evans.

Bryan Forbes was offered a three picture deal by Bernard Delfont who had just bought the film studio Associated British.

Bryan Forbes refused, criticising Associated British; he wrote Delfont a paper about the state of the studio and how it should be run.

Bryan Forbes returned to Hollywood to direct The Stepford Wives, based on Ira Levin's novel of the same name.

Bryan Forbes clashed with screenwriter William Goldman over casting decisions and changes to the film's ending made by Bryan Forbes, causing Goldman to drop out of the project.

Bryan Forbes served as president of the National Youth Theatre, Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the Beatrix Potter Society.

Bryan Forbes wrote two volumes of autobiography and several successful novels, the last of which, The Soldier's Story, was published in 2012.

Bryan Forbes was a regular contributor to The Spectator magazine.

In 2004, Bryan Forbes was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the arts.

Bryan Forbes soon returned to the UK; he and Smith divorced in 1955.

Bryan Forbes went on to marry actress Nanette Newman the same year.

Bryan Forbes was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975, while working on The Slipper and the Rose; he remained in remission, which he attributed to cutting out gluten and taking vitamins and oil of primrose, together with Newman's care.

Bryan Forbes continued his acting, directing and screenwriting career into the early 1990s, and was still publishing novels in the 2010s.

Bryan Forbes lived in Virginia Water, Surrey where he ran a bookshop in the 1960s.

Bryan Forbes died at his home in Virginia Water on 8 May 2013 at the age of 86, following a long illness.

Bryan Forbes is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that he died surrounded by his family.