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John Mortimer is a Actor, Scriptwriter, Producer and Additional Writing British born on 21 april 1923 at London (United-kingdom)

John Mortimer

John Mortimer
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Birth name John Clifford Mortimer
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 21 april 1923 at London (United-kingdom)
Death 16 january 2009 (at 85 years) at Henley-on-Thames (United-kingdom)
Awards Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.

Biography

Il fait ses études au Brasenose College de l'Université d'Oxford, dont il sort diplômé en 1947. Membre du barreau britannique, il est avocat conseil de la reine d'Angleterre. Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il est scénariste de la Crown Film Unit .

En parallèle à son activité d'avocat, il mène une importante carrière littéraire. Comme dramaturge, il signe une quarantaine de pièces. Il rédige aussi les scénarios d'une dizaine de films, notamment l'adaptation de la nouvelle Le Tour d'écrou de Henry James pour le film Les Innocents (The Innocents) de Jack Clayton en 1961.

En littérature policière, il crée en 1978 le personnage de Rumpole, avocat londonien devenu le héros de deux romans et d'une quinzaine de recueils de nouvelles. D'un ton faussement désinvolte, ce juriste raconte comment il plaide à la cour, souvent devant son ennemi juré, le juge Boullingham, des affaires qu'il gagne toujours grâce à quelque astuce retorse ou par son efficace mauvaise foi. Rumpole a été incarné par l'acteur Leo McKern dans la série télévisée britannique Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-1992).

Il était anobli en 1998.
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of John Mortimer (19 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

The Ware Case
The Ware Case (1938)
, 1h19
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Clive Brook, Jane Baxter, Barry K. Barnes, C.V. France, Francis L. Sullivan, Frank Cellier
Roles Youth (uncredited)
Rating62% 3.1416053.1416053.1416053.1416053.141605
The jury looks back on events that lead to profligate baronet Sir Hubert Ware being tried for murder. His brother-in-law's corpse has been found floating in Sir Hubert's garden pond. The baronet is eventually found not guilty, but upon returning home, finds his lawyer is having an affair with his wife. In the ensuing argument, and on discovering his wife loves another man, Sir Hubert confesses his guilt and then makes a suicidal leap from a balcony.
Brown on Resolution
Brown on Resolution (1935)
, 1h20
Directed by Anthony Asquith, Walter Forde
Origin United-kingdom
Genres War, Action
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Political films
Actors John Mills, Betty Balfour, Barry MacKay, Jimmy Hanley, Howard Marion-Crawford, George Merritt
Rating61% 3.0927253.0927253.0927253.0927253.092725
In 1893, Betty Brown meets a debonair young naval officer and falls in love. She conceals her pregnancy from him, and he rejoins his ship. The boy, Albert Brown, is brought up by his mother and joins the navy as soon as he is old enough.
Me and Marlborough
Me and Marlborough (1935)
, 1h24
Directed by Victor Saville
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Romance
Actors Cicely Courtneidge, Tom Walls, Barry MacKay, Alfred Drayton, Gibb McLaughlin, Peter Gawthorne
Roles Minor Role
Rating59% 2.959972.959972.959972.959972.95997
England, 1710. A woman disguises herself as a man and joins up with the Duke of Marlborough's army in Flanders to find her missing husband.

Scriptwriter

In Love and War
In Love and War (2001)
, 1h30
Directed by John Kent Harrison
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Historical, Romance
Actors Callum Blue, Barbora Bobulova, Roberto Nobile, Peter Bowles, Nick Reding, Silvia De Santis
Rating64% 3.244393.244393.244393.244393.24439
After being released from an Italian prison, British officer Eric Newby (Blue) must find his way out of Italy before the Germans come. However, he is injured on the way and is left behind from his fellow soldiers. He is helped out by the local Italians, and he meets Wanda (Bobulova), a beautiful local girl who helps him learn Italian so that he can escape. Their friendship slowly blossoms into quite a strong and close genuine romance. But with the Germans looking for Eric, they are kept apart from one another, not knowing what will happen to them.
Don Quixote
Don Quixote (2000)
, 2h18
Directed by Peter Yates
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Adventure, Romance
Themes Buddy films
Actors John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins, James Purefoy, Isabella Rossellini, Vanessa Williams, Lambert Wilson
Roles Writer
Rating60% 3.0498453.0498453.0498453.0498453.049845
Accompagné de son valet Sancho Panza, Don Quichotte, vieil homme idéaliste et farfelu, se lance dans une croisade contre les brigands de tout poil.
Tea with Mussolini
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
, 1h57
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Origin Italie
Genres Drama, War, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Politique, Political films
Actors Cher, Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin, Michael Williams
Rating68% 3.4471253.4471253.4471253.4471253.447125
The film begins in Florence, Italy in 1935, where a group of cultured expatriate English women — called by the Italians "the Scorpioni" — meet for tea every afternoon. Young Luca (Charlie Lucas) is the illegitimate son of an Italian businessman (Massimo Ghini) who shows little interest in his son's upbringing; the boy's mother, a dressmaker, has recently died. Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright), who works as the man's secretary, steps in to care for him, turning to her Scorpioni friends – including eccentric would-be artist Arabella (Judi Dench) – for support. Together, they teach Luca many lessons about life and especially the arts. Elsa Morganthal (Cher), a brash rich young American widow whom Scorpioni matron Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith) barely tolerates, sets up a financial trust for Luca when she learns of the death of his mother, whom she was fond of and to whom Elsa still owed money for her dressmaking services.
Maschenka
Maschenka (1987)
, 1h43
Directed by John Goldschmidt
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Cary Elwes, Irina Brook, Freddie Jones, Michael Gough, Jonathan Coy, Lena Stolze
Roles Writer
Rating65% 3.262323.262323.262323.262323.26232
The story, said to be semi-autobiographical, is of Lev Glebovich Ganin (Elwes), a Russian émigré who has been displaced by the Russian Revolution. Now living in a boarding house in Berlin, Ganin discovers that his long-lost first love, Maschenka (Brook) is the wife of the rather unappealing boarder next door, Alfyrov (Coy), and that and she is on her way to rejoin her husband. This knowledge, combined with the incessant recitation of his memories of old Russia by another boarder, Podtyagin (Jones), send him into a state of reverie. Ganin contrives a complex scheme in order to reunite with Maschenka, who he believes still loves him.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
, 1h35
Directed by Jack Clayton
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Fantastic, Fantasy, Horror
Themes Circus films, Films based on science fiction novels, Children's films
Actors Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Pam Grier, Ellen Geer, Richard Davalos
Rating66% 3.347163.347163.347163.347163.34716
In Greentown, Illinois, a small town enjoying the innocence of an upcoming autumn as the days grow shorter, two young boys—reserved Will Halloway and somewhat rebellious Jim Nightshade—leave from an after-school detention for "whispering in class" and hurry off for home. When the boys hear about a strange traveling carnival, Mr. Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, from a lightning-rod salesman, they decide to see what it is all about, but Will is fearful, as most carnivals end their tours after Labor Day. When the ominous Mr. Dark, the Illustrated Man, rides into town on a dark midnight, setting up his massive carnival in a matter of seconds, the boys are both thrilled and terrified. It seems to be just another carnival at first, but it is not long before the forces of darkness begin to manifest from the haunting melodies of the carousel—which can change your age depending on which way you ride it—and from the glaring Mirror Maze. With his collection of freaks and oddities, Dark intends to take control of the town and seize more innocent souls to damn. It will take all the wit and hope of the two boys to save their families and friends, with aid from an unlikely ally, Will's father, the town librarian, who understands more than anyone else that "something wicked this way comes.
John and Mary
John and Mary (1969)
, 1h32
Directed by Peter Yates
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farrow, Michael Tolan, Olympia Dukakis, Tyne Daly, Marian Mercer
Rating64% 3.246113.246113.246113.246113.24611
John and Mary begins the morning after John and Mary meet in a bar, during a conversation about Jean-Luc Godard's Week End, and go home with each other. The story unfolds during the day as they belatedly get to know each other over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Flashbacks of their previous bad relationships are interspersed throughout when something in their conversation brings the thought up.
A Flea in Her Ear
A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
, 1h34
Directed by Jacques Charon
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Rex Harrison, Rosemary Harris, Louis Jourdan, Rachel Roberts, John Williams, Grégoire Aslan
Roles Writer
Rating55% 2.7659352.7659352.7659352.7659352.765935
Gabrielle (Rosemary Harris) is convinced her attorney husband Victor (Rex Harrison) is seeing another woman because of his inattention to her amorous needs. Gabrielle sets up a meeting with her husband at a bordello-hotel, and he is completely unaware that the woman he is going to meet will be his own wife.
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
, 1h47
Directed by Otto Preminger
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller
Actors Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Martita Hunt, Anna Massey, Finlay Currie
Rating72% 3.648053.648053.648053.648053.64805
American single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley), who recently moved to London from New York, arrives at the Little People's Garden preschool to collect her daughter, Bunny. The child has mysteriously disappeared. An administrator recalls meeting with Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Stephen (Keir Dullea) search the school and find a sinister woman living upstairs, who claims she collects children's nightmares. In desperation, the Lakes call the police and Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) arrives on the scene.
The Running Man
The Running Man (1963)
, 1h43
Directed by Carol Reed
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Transport films, Aviation films
Actors Laurence Harvey, Lee Remick, Alan Bates, Fernando Rey, Felix Aylmer, Eleanor Summerfield
Rating64% 3.248863.248863.248863.248863.24886
In Croydon, England, seemingly grieving Stella Black (Lee Remick) has just returned home from her husband's funeral. Apparently, he died in a gliding accident when the glider he had rented crashed into the sea, and his body was never recovered. In reality, she knows her husband Rex Black (Laurence Harvey) is still alive and has been in hiding at a seaside boarding house for three months under the assumed name of Erskine, a shoe salesman on vacation, between the time of his "death" and the funeral. He has just clandestinely returned home following the funeral. They are perpetrating this ruse to collect on the £50,000 life insurance money from the Excelsior Insurance Company. They feel Excelsior owes them this money as, in the previous year, Excelsior did not pay out a £20,000 business insurance claim when his airplane, which he used to operate his own transport company, went down in bad weather on a flight to Hamburg, West Germany, and was destroyed. His insurance had lapsed by two days due to someone's error in not paying the latest premium – Rex admitting that it may have been his error - which in turn ruined his business.