Val Guest
Val Guest ( born December 11, 1911 in London as Valmond Maurice Grossman, † 10 May, 2006 Palm Springs ) was a British film director, screenwriter and film producer. Guest was regarded as particularly versatile.
Life
Guest began his career as an actor in British theater stages and mini roles in early British sound film. Alongside he alone operation the London office of the "Hollywood Reporter". An encounter with Marcel Varnel led him to write screenplays for Gainsborough Studios. Director of these films was usually Varnel, the star comedian Will Hay often the main character. Much of the screenplays he wrote together with Marriott Edgar and JOC Orton. In the early 1940s he began the first short films for the Ministry of Information to realize. For the first time directing a major motion picture he took in 1943 in the musical Miss London Ltd.. In the following years, he directed some of the supposedly best and worst British films. Especially from the mass tower above the two science fiction films Shock ( The Quatermass Xperiment, 1955) and The Day the Earth Caught Fire ( The Day the Earth Caught Fire, 1961).
In 1954 he married actress Yolande Donlan, with whom he was until his death together. Between 1951 and 1963, both worked together in eight films. Other well-known films were Guests example, Casino Royale, Carry On Admiral ( Gerald Thomas to his successful film series Carry-on ... inspired ), and daggers in the Kasbah ( Where the Spies Are). In the television series The Two and Moonbase Alpha 1 he directed some episodes.
In 1960 he was nominated enemies of yesterday ( Yesterday's Enemy, 1959) in two categories for the British Film Academy Award for the film in 1961 for hunt ( Hell Is a City, 1960). In 1962 he finally won the award for the screenplay of The Day the Earth caught fire. Guest was involved in the screenplays for nearly 80 films and television series and has directed over 50 theater productions. He produced some of the movies themselves, even songs he wrote for several of his films.