- Born
- Died
- British novelist, poet and occasional screenwriter, John Henry Noyes Collier was best known as the author of macabre or bizarre short stories with trick endings, akin to those of Roald Dahl. The most widely read of these were published under the title "Fancies and Goodnights" in 1951, winning Collier the inaugural International Fantasy Award and an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America. Privately educated by his novelist uncle Vincent (though he never subsequently attended college), he became a published, but largely unsuccessful, poet by the age of 20. He authored several novels in the 1930's (including the whimsical "His Monkey Wife"), which established his reputation as being adroit and possessed of a waspish wit. His books found a wider audience in the United States, than in his own country. In 1935, Collier moved to California, under contract to RKO. His first screenwriting assignment was the adaptation of Compton MacKenzie's novel Sylvia Scarlett (1935). With a meandering storyline and basically unsympathetic characters, the film flopped at the box office to the tune of $363,000 and did much to damage Katharine Hepburn's public image at the time.
Collier promptly returned to Britain, where he had greater success with his subsequent endeavour, Elephant Boy (1937) for Alexander Korda's London Films. He returned to Hollywood only sporadically during the 1940's and 50's, his most notable contribution being the screenplay for the classic Bette Davis melodrama Deception (1946). He also penned original material for The African Queen (1951), which was not used in the final print. One of his short stories, "The Chaser", had the distinction of being the only episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) First Season, not written by either Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont or Richard Matheson. Other Collier stories were used effectively in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and Tales of the Unexpected (1979). His last major film work was, in tandem with Millard Kaufman, The War Lord (1965) -- a medieval Technicolor romance starring Charlton Heston. For most of the decade, Collier laboured on an adaptation of John Milton's "Paradise Lost", which ended up in book form but never made it onto the screen. Collier divided much of his remaining life travelling between England, France and the U.S.. He also lived for a while in Mexico. At the time of his death, in April 1980, he resided in Pacific Palisades, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
- SpousesHarriet Hess Collier(May 25, 1954 - April 6, 1980) (his death, 1 child)Margaret Elizabeth "Beth Kay" Eke(1945 - ?) (divorced)Shirley Palmer(1936 - ?) (divorced)
- His great-grandfather was physician to King William IV.
- He owned a house in the South of France which he often rented out to other writers for summer holidays. However, he would also check the house out carefully for any minor damage or alteration caused by these tenants, and often proved extremely litigious.
- In 1945, he and Christopher Isherwood, both British and with a literary career outside of movie work, were employed at Warner Brothers and had adjoining offices in the Writers' Building. Both stoutly maintained that the British General Election, the first one since the start of the war, would be won by the Labour Party, whereas their American colleagues sentimentally assumed that the popularity of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill would guarantee a victory for the Conservatives. In the event, Labour won by a landslide, and both Collier and Isherwood won a tidy amount of money by having made wagers with these other writers.
- He wrote the first version of the screenplay for "The African Queen", over a dozen years before the eventual film directed by John Huston was released. Collier claimed he had brought C.S. Forester's novel to the attention of Warner Brothers as a likely vehicle for the studio's top female star, Bette Davis. (Apparently, David Niven was suggested for the male lead). However, the necessity of extensive location filming in Africa and the likelihood of a war in Europe both put Jack L. Warner off the idea; he was reminded that Davis had the right to pick her film vehicles from any property the studio owned, and so wanted to sell his newly-acquired film rights to the book as quickly as possible. He sold the rights to Collier himself, who later claimed he "bought them for a song and then sold them again for the equivalent of a grand opera" - however, Collier had nothing to do with the eventual classic movie of 1951.
- Charlton Heston wrote feelingly in his work journals (eventually published) about how difficult it was to get Collier to work with any speed on the screenplay of "The War Lord", although he praised the eventual results. Collier, in turn, insisted that his work on the film had been ruined by insensitive rewrites by others, and he never had any subsequent screenwriting credits.
- [on "Sylvia Scarlett", 1935]: Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well as was hoped. It had all the elements of a really good film - based on a lively book, a first-rate cast, and in Cukor an outstandingly brilliant director. Unfortunately, again, not a good script. In the main, my fault.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content