Biography

Sidney Gilliat, the English director, screenwriter, and producer, was born on February 15, 1908 in Edgely, Cheshire, England. He began his screen-writing career in the silent movie era, writing inter-titles, going uncredited for his contributions to Honeymoon Abroad (1928), Champagne (1928), and Week-End Wives (1929). He first entered into a working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock on The Manxman (1929), for which he did uncredited research. Ten years later, he would help write the dialog for the director's Jamaica Inn (1939). He eventually became a credited screenwriter in the 1930s, with A Gentleman of Paris (1931).

He partnered with Frank Launder, whom he first worked with uncredited on The Greenwood Tree (1929), and together they wrote, directed and produced almost 40 movies between their first credited collaboration Facing the Music (1933) through The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), which they also co-directed. For Hitchcock, they co-wrote the classic The Lady Vanishes (1938). They also wrote Night Train to Munich (1940) for Carol Reed. Their collaboration is most famous for generating the St. Trinian's films, most notably The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), which was directed by Launder and featured a tour de force performance by Alastair Sim. Sim was also the star of their The Green Man (1956), for which they received second straight Best British Screenplay nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Sidney Gilliat died on May 31, 1994 in Wiltshire, England. He was 86 years old.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood & Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>

Frank was briefly a civil servant and repertory actor before play writing took him into writing for the cinema in 1928. Sidney Gilliat, started as the film critic for the London Evening Standard, for which his father was the editor, and also started to write screenplays in 1928. For the next seven years they both worked on a wide variety of thrillers and comedies before collaborating for the first time on the script for 'Seven Sinners' in 1936. Jointly they wrote the screenplays for Hitchcock's 'The Lady Vanishes' (1936), Carol Reed's 'Night Train to Munich'(1940) and 'Young Mr. Pitt' (1942) amongst others, which established their reputation and led to receiving a commission for an international short film about the Home Front. When the project grew in scope Gainsbotough agreed to finance it resulting in them co - directing their first co feature 'Millions Like Us' in 1943. Subsequently they alternated sole direction for projects they developed jointly and launched their own company, 'Individual Pictures' in 1944, part of the Independent Producers Consortium that was funded for a few years by the Rank Organisation. In 1958 they joined the board of British Lion Films and were heavily involved in the campaigns of the 1960's as the company tried unsuccessfully to establish an independent third force alongside Rank and ABC. Their last films were'Endless Night' directed by Sidneyin 1972 and 'Wildcats of St Trinians' directed by Frank in 1978s'

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5