Bryan Forbes Movies and Career Information

Bryan Forbes, CBE (born John Theobald Clark on 22 July 1926 in Stratford, West Ham, historically in Essex, and now part of Greater London) is an English film director, actor and writer. Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts but did not complete his studies. After military service from 1945 to 1948, he played numerous supporting roles in British films as well as appearing on the stage, but was obliged to change his name by British Equity to avoid confusion with the adolescent actor John Clark. He began also to write for the screen, receiving his first full credit for The Cockleshell Heroes in 1955. Another noted screenplay of his from this period was for The League of Gentlemen in 1959, in which he also acted. He formed a production company with his frequent collaborator Richard Attenborough in 1959 (Beaver Films), which went on to make The Angry Silence in 1960, a screenplay by Forbes in which Attenborough took the lead role, and both shared production responsibilities. In 1961 he made his directorial debut Whistle Down the Wind, again produced by Attenborough. In 1964, Forbes wrote and directed Séance on a Wet Afternoon, for which he won a 1965 Edgar