Alan Bennett
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Biography
Extremely shy and private writer-actor Alan Bennett lost his anonymity early when the success of the "Beyond the Fringe" revue (both in London and New York) thrust him into the limelight in the early 1960s. The least spectacular of the madcap ensemble, which also included fellow Oxford grads Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, this sandy-haired son of a Yorkshire butcher was a deft character player who never seemed to risk the others' flights of improvisation. Never stumbling, never soaring, the cautiously letter-perfect Bennett was, even then, more the writer than performer. Yet, of that talented quartet, Bennett has shown the most staying power, becoming arguably Britain's most endearing man of letters. In his writings for the stage, film, TV and literary weeklies, one can hear the voice of the last country parson.
Some of Bennett's best work has been for TV, beginning with the critically acclaimed BBC series "On the Margin" (1966). An association formed with Stephen Frears while the two were acting in 1978's "The Long Shot" (Bennett's feature acting debut) led to Frears' directing four installments of "By Alan Bennett--Six Plays" for the London Weekend Television (LWT) network. His collaboration with director John Schlesinger produced first "An Englishman Abroad" (1983), based on the true meeting between actress Coral Browne and notorious exiled British traitor Guy Burgess in 1950s Moscow, and later "A Question of Attribution" (1992), adapted from Bennett's own play about Sir Anthony Blunt, scholarly guardian of the Queen's paintings. Both aired as part of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" as has much of his TV work crossing the pond. In his six dramatic monologues for BBC-TV, "Talking Heads" (1988), Bennett captured the loneliness of the TV age in a form as woefully intimate as the words and performances were poignant.
Bennett garnered praise for his early two-act plays "Forty Years On" (1968) and "Getting On" (1971) but did not have a play debut on Broadway until "Habeas Corpus" in 1975. His first screenplay produced was the hilarious "A Private Function" (1984), but he may have erred with his next effort, Frears' "Prick Up Your Ears" (1987), missing too much of playwright Joe Orton's life by choosing to dramatize biographer John Lahr's inquiry into Orton. Bennett's most distinguished film work has been "The Madness of King George" (1994), based on his 1991 play, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Though he occasionally still performs (a part in the A&E miniseries "Ashenden" 1992, a cameo in "The Madness of King George"), acting would seem to run against the grain of his reticence. It is much more to his taste to reveal himself discreetly in his prolific output of drama and prose.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Director (Special)
Cast (Special)
Writer (Special)
Special Thanks (Special)
Misc. Crew (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Writer (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1952
Served in the British Army, Intelligence Corps
1959
Stage debut in the ensemble of the revue "Better Late"
1962
Broadway debut with "Beyond the Fringe"
1964
British TV acting debut in special farewell performance of "Beyond the Fringe" by the original cast
1966
Scripted and acted in the award-winning BBC series "On the Margin"
1968
Wrote and acted in two-act play "Forty Years On"
1971
Authored another two-act, "Getting On"
1975
"Habeas Corpus" appeared on Broadway two years after its Oxford, England debut
1976
First film appearance in the performance documentary "Pleasure at Her Majesty's"
1978
Feature acting debut, "Long Shot"
1983
John Schlesinger directed Bennett's "An Englishman Abroad" (BBC), a 65-minute script recreating a true meeting between the actress Coral Browne and exiled British traitor Guy Burgess in dreary 1950s Moscow
1984
First produced screenplay, "A Private Function"
1987
Wrote screenplay for "Prick Up Your Ears", adapting John Lahr's biography of playwright Joe Orton; directed by Frears
1987
Played the Bishop in feature adaptation of Charles Dickens' "Little Dorrit"
1989
Directed "Bed Among the Lentils" episode of BBC's "Talking Heads" series, starring Maggie Smith as the alcoholic wife of a trendy vicar; shown in the USA on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre"
1991
Authored play "The Wind in the Willows", adapted from Kenneth Grahame's children's book, and "The Lady in the Van", his memoir of a deranged woman who parked her car in his garden and stayed there for 15 years until her death in 1989 ("One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation"), "Lady in the Van" became the centerpiece of "Writing Home", his 1995 prose collection
1991
Scripted BBC movie "102 Boulevard Haussmann", about French novelist Marcel Proust; aired in USA on Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E)
1991
Had stage hit with "The Madness of George III", starring Nigel Hawthorne
1992
Writer and actor in "A Chip in the Sugar", which appeared on "Masterpice Theatre" as part of "2 Monologus: In My Defense-A Chip in the Sugar"; one of the original six monologues of the BBC's "Talking Heads" series
1992
Second collaboration with director Schlesinger, "A Question of Attribution"; shown as part of "Masterpiece Theatre"
1995
Received Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, "The Madness of King George" (from his 1991 play), also appeared in cameo near its end as a member of Parliament
1996
Voiced the mole in the animated feature adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows"; released theatrically in the UK; aired on the Family Channnel in the USA
1996
Wrote and appeared in the BBC's "Westminster Documentary", which aired on PBS
1997
Acted in miniseries adaptation of Anthony Powell's novel "A Dance to the Music of Time"; telecast aired on Channel 4 in Great Britain
1999
Returned to playwrighting with "The Lady in the Van", starring Maggie Smith; based on true life incident recounted in Bennett's memoirs
2004
Wrote the critically-acclaimed play, "The History Boys" which premiered at the National Theatre; opened on Broadway in 2006
2006
Penned the film adaptation of his award-winning play, "The History Boys"
Family
Companions
