William Templeton (screenwriter)
| William Templeton | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
7 June 1913 Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 23 October 1973 (aged 60) Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Esterhazy (1953–64) |
| Relatives | Christopher Templeton b.1960 (son) |
William Pettigrew Templeton (7 June 1913 – 23 October 1973) was a Scottish playwright and screenwriter who made a major contribution to the Golden Age of Television writing a string of episodic dramas for American prime time television during the 1950s and 1960s, a time when many hour-long anthology drama series received wide critical acclaim. As Gore Vidal pointed out with uncharacteristically glowing enthusiasm in 1956, it was also the "Golden Age for the Dramatist". William had a long film career both in the UK and the US. His adaptation of The Fallen Idol (also known as The Lost Illusion) a 1948 film with Ralph Richardson directed by Carol Reed and based on the short story The Basement Room by Graham Greene was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.
Templeton wrote his way out of the Gorbals slums on the south bank of the River Clyde Glasgow by being one of the youngest playwrights to have a production performed in the West End of London. At 20 he wrote a One Act play The King's Spaniel which ran at the Royal Lyceum Theatre and then at 24, his first three-act play, Circus Murder, was picked up and produced by Jevan Brandon Thomas at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1937 and then quickly exported to London by the producer Esme Church for a run at the New Theatre (1938) under the title The Painted Smile. Theatre critic WA Darlington of The Daily Telegraph called it "a cleverly created illusion". From his new London base, Templeton continued to write a string of successful West End plays, including:
At the height of his theatre career in the early 1950s, Templeton started to attract the attention of Hollywood and secured a series of contracts from major film companies including Sir Alexander Korda at London Films, Walt Disney, Desilu and Universal. He became best known for his 1956 adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, with Edmond O'Brien in the title role as Winston Smith "It was a masterly adaptation that depicted with power and poignancy and terrifying beauty the end result of thought control", according to Jack Gould in The New York Times. His screenplay adaptation of the book All on a Summer's Day by HLV Fletcher became the British crime thriller Double Confession (1950) directed by Ken Annakin, starring Peter Lorre with a cast of British character actors.
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