Terence Rattigan

Sir Terence Rattigan, in full Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, born in South Kensington, London, of Irish extraction, was an English screenwriter and playwright. Rattigan was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Oxford.

Rattigan had early success with two farces, French Without Tears (performed 1936) and While the Sun Shines (performed 1943). The Winslow Boy (performed 1946), a drama based on a real-life case in which a young boy at the Royal Naval College was unjustly accused of theft, won a New York Critics award. Separate Tables (performed 1945), perhaps his best known work, took as its theme the isolation and frustration that result from rigidly imposed social conventions. The radio play Cause Célèbre was his final work; first broadcast in 1975, it was performed onstage in 1977.

Several of his plays seriously explore social or psychological themes, and his plays consistently demonstrate solid craftsmanship. Rattigan was knighted in 1971 for his services to the theatre. He had many screenplays to his credit, including film versions of The Winslow Boy (1948) and Separate Tables (1958), among others, and The Yellow Rolls Royce (1965) and Goodbye Mr. Chips (1968).

Source: Britannica