Bryan Forbes

The multi-talented London-born Bryan Forbes began his career as an actor, establishing himself as a competent supporting player on both stage and screen, but it was as a writer that he finally promoted himself through the ranks. A short story writer and journalist, he received his first screenwriting credit on Jose Ferrer's "The Cockleshell Heroes" (1955), although he previously had made uncredited contributions to "The Black Knight" (1954) and "An Alligator Named Daisy" (also 1955). With Richard Attenborough, Forbes formed the production company Beaver Films in 1959, and their initial offering was "The Angry Silence" (1960), for which Forbes won a British Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay. He then got his first opportunity to direct when he replaced Guy Green at the helm of Beaver Films' "Whistle Down the Wind" (1961) and delivered a poignant, believable story of childhood innocence, starring Haley Mills as one of three children who discover a fugitive (Alan Bates) and believe him to be Christ.