Beverley Cross

Who was Beverley Cross?

Beverley Cross was an English playwright, librettist and screenwriter.

Born in London into a theatrical family, Cross started off by writing children's plays in the 1950s. He achieved instant success with his first play, One More River, which dealt with a mutiny in which a crew puts its first officer on trial for manslaughter. The play made its debut in 1959, starring Michael Caine.

Cross' second play, Strip the Willow, was to make a star out of his future wife, Dame Maggie Smith, even though the play was staged only in the provinces, never receiving a London production. In 1962, he translated Marc Camoletti's classic farce Boeing Boeing, which went on to have a lengthy and highly lucrative run in the West End. In 1964, he directed the play in Sydney. Another of his successes was Half a Sixpence, a musical comedy based on the H.G. Wells novel Kipps. This opened in 1963, and like his first play, ran in London for more than a year.

He also wrote opera librettos for Richard Rodney Bennett and Nicholas Maw.

Cross later became well known for his screenplays, notably Jason and the Argonauts, The Long Ships, Genghis Khan, and Clash of the Titans. He also adapted Half a Sixpence for the screen. He also worked uncredited on the script for Lawrence of Arabia, although it is doubtful whether any of his material made it to the final edit.