Simon Gray

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Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE (born October 21, 1936) is an English playwright.

Born in Hayling Island, England, he attended Westminster School, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lives in London.

Gray has written over 30 plays, including Butley, Quartermaine's Terms, several TV plays, film scripts and a number of popular memoirs. He has collaborated with actor Alan Bates five times; with director Harold Pinter seven times, most recently on The Old Masters. Peter Bowles, Edward Fox and Clive Francis have frequently appeared in his plays. He often writes lead roles for middle-aged males. His subject matter is often the trials and tribulations of educated intellectuals, and his plays are notable for their wit and emotional incisiveness.

In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Drama and Literature.

[edit] Works

Plays

  • Wise Child
  • Dutch Uncle
  • The Idiot (adapted from Dostoyevsky)
  • Spoiled
  • Butley
  • Otherwise Engaged
  • Dog Days
  • Molly
  • The Rear Column
  • Close of Play
  • Stage Struck
  • Quartermaine's Terms
  • The Common Pursuit
  • Melon (later revised as The Holy Terror)
  • Hidden Laughter
  • Life Support
  • Simply Disconnected (sequel to Otherwise Engaged)
  • Cell Mates
  • The Late Middle Clases
  • Japes
  • Just the Three of Us
  • The Old Masters

Screenplays

Television Plays

  • The Man in the Sidecar
  • Plaintiffs and Defendants
  • Two Sundays
  • After Pilkington
  • They Never Slept
  • Unnatural Pursuits (2 parts)
  • Old Flames
  • Running Late
  • Femme Fatale

Novels

  • Little Portia
  • Breaking Hearts

Memoirs

  • An Unnatural Pursuit
  • How's that for Telling 'em, Fat Lady?
  • Fat Chance
  • Enter A Fox
  • The Smoking Diaries
  • The Year of the Jouncer
In other languages