fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Gerald Douglas Savory (17 November 1909 – 9 February 1996) was an English writer and television producer specialising in comedies.[1][2]

Gerald Savory
Born	Gerald Douglas Savory (1909-11-17)17 November 1909 London, England
Died	9 February 1996(1996-02-09) (aged 86) England
Occupation	Writer, television producer
Spouse(s)	Teo Dunbar ​ ​ (m. 1938, divorced)​ Althea Murphy ​ ​ (m. 1950; died 1952)​ Annette Carell ​ ​ (m. 1953; died 1967)​ Sheila Brennan ​ (m. 1970)​

Biography

The son of Kenneth Douglas Savory and actress Grace Lane (1877–1956),[3][4] he was educated at Bradfield College and worked as a stockbroker's clerk before turning to the stage (Hull Repertory Theatre Company 1931–33), first as an actor then a writer.[2][5] His play George and Margaret, written while out of work as an actor, ran for two years at Wyndham's Theatre and a year at the Piccadilly.[6] It then transferred to Broadway, where it ran for 86 performances, and was later filmed.[7][8] His earliest work in the film industry was as a dialogue writer for director Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937).[1]

He lived in the USA in the 1940s and 50s writing for film and television, and became an American citizen.[2] After returning to England in the mid 1950s he became a writer, producer and production manager for Granada Television, producing five episodes of ITV Play of the Week; adapting Saki, J.B. Priestley, Noël Coward and Tennessee Williams for television. He then joined BBC Television, first as Head of Serials, then Head of Plays.[4] He produced five episodes of the unsuccessful series Churchill's People (1975–76) and six of the eight episodes of Love in a Cold Climate (1980) for Thames Television.[9][10]

Personal life

Savory was married four times but had no children other than a stepson by his fourth wife. His first marriage, to writer Teo Dunbar,[3] ended in divorce. In 1950, he married American actress Althea Murphy (1916–1952), who died of leukemia in 1952.[11][12][13] In 1953, he married actress Annette Carell, who died by suicide in 1967.[14][15] He was survived by his fourth wife, actress Sheila Brennan, whom he married in 1970.[16][3]

He died in England on 9 February 1996.[17]

Plays

• George and Margaret 1937[18] (377 performances in the West End, filmed in 1940)
• Hand in Glove 1944 with Charles K. Freeman based on his own novel Hughie Roddis[19]
• A Likely Tale 1957[20]
• A Month of Sundays 1957
• So Many Children 1959
• Cup and Saucer 1961
• Twinkling of an Eye 1965

Novels

• Hughie Roddis 1942
• Behold This Dreamer 1943

Television

• Count Dracula 1977
• Mapp and Lucia, Series One 1985; Series Two 1986

References

External links

• Gerald Savory at IMDb
• Gerald Savory at the Internet Broadway Database

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