Harry Alan Towers

Harry Alan Towers spent nearly all of his life in the entertainment industry. Perhaps because of this, his life sometimes resembled the colorful characters in the films he wrote and/or produced. The child of a show business family, he was born in England and started his career as a child actor. He moved to radio script writing after serving with Britain's Royal Air Force in World War II, and within a few years graduated to the world of television. In that realm, he produced several anthology series for the U.K. market, and before long he had moved on to films. He wrote the 1961 grave-robber horror feature "The Anatomist," also acting as the movie's producer (he used two separate aliases for each of these jobs on the film). He was a prolific and apparently tireless writer and producer, doing one or both jobs on many films (and the occasional TV production) for the remainder of his life. Among other projects, Towers produced and wrote "Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians"" ('65), and produced the '72 movie adaptation of the classic "Treasure Island." His life wasn't without its controversies. In '61, American authorities charged him and his girlfriend with running a vice ring from his residence in New York; he skipped bail and fled to Europe. Years later, the charges were dropped after Towers paid a fine.