Kenneth G. Ross

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Kenneth G. Ross
Born: June 4, 1941
East Brunswick, Victoria
Occupation: Playwright, screenwriter
Nationality: Australian
Writing period: 1977 -
Debut works: Don't Piddle Against the Wind, Mate (1977)

Kenneth Graham Ross (born June 4, 1941) is an Australian playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the 1978 stage play Breaker Morant, that was based on the life of Australian soldier Harry "Breaker" Morant. With the support of the South Australian Film Corporation this play was later adapted by Ross into a film of the same name in 1980. The film was nominated for the 1980 Academy Award for the screenplay adapted from another source.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Ross was born on June 4, 1941 in East Brunswick, Victoria.

His great-grandparents were Hugh Ross (who arrived in Australia, as a free settler, at Van Diemen's Land in 1837) and Barbara Ross (née McKenzie), and George Beckton and Eliza Beckton (née Peirson, born in Mansfield, Victoria). His grandparents were John Ross (born at Kilmore, Victoria) and Adelaide Elizabeth Ross (née Beckton, born in Jamieson, Victoria). His parents were Kenneth McKenzie Ross (born in Mansfield, Victoria) and Alma Ross (née Graham, born in Mansfield, Victoria). He has three children: Kendal, Kimberly, and Ian.

Ross attended Caulfield Grammar School in East St Kilda, Victoria, where one of his teachers[1] recognized and strongly encouraged his creative writing talents. He also displayed strong debating skills whilst at school.

Ross was a tenacious and courageous Australian rules footballer who played well above his weight, and was a superb middle distance runner, excelling at the 880 yards (or half-mile), now the 800 metres.

[edit] Ken, Kenneth, or Kenneth G. Ross?

Ross, known as "Ken Ross" at school, began writing under the nom de guerre of "Kenneth Ross" in order to set himself apart from various other well-known creative Australians known as "Ken Ross".[2]

More recently, however, Ross has written under the name of "Kenneth G. Ross" in order to avoid confusion with that other, equally famous, Kenneth Ross: the Scottish/American Kenneth Ross who wrote the screenplays for the movies The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File.[3]

[edit] Legal action against Angus & Robertson

Ross's play, Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts,[4], was first performed in 1978. The play was such a commercial and artistic success, that work started immediately to convert the script of the play into a screenplay.

Ross worked on the film as a scriptwiter, and the film was entirely based on Ross's play.

Once it became known that Ross's film was near release, the Australian publisher Angus & Robertson re-issued an out-of-print and not widely known 1973 novel, The Breaker, that had been written by Kit Denton.[5]

It was issued with great gusto, with the original 1973 front cover, plus the factually incorrect announcement overlaid across one corner of the cover: "Soon to be made into a major film".[6]

This announcement was incorrect for two reasons:

  • it was Ross's play, not Denton's book, that was being made into a movie, and
  • Denton's book was never used to create any part of the film script (a script for which Ross had been one of the writing team from start to finish).[7]

In 1980, Ross took legal action against Angus & Robertson in the Supreme Court of South Australia for re-issuing the 1973 book with the factually incorrect announcement on the cover. With the support of crucial evidence provided by the film's director Bruce Beresford, Ross won his case. Angus & Robertson withdrew the 1979 version of Denton's book from sale, and trashed all the remaining copies.

Another, "revised" version of Denton's book (minus the cover announcement, and with a picture of actor Edward Woodward on the cover) was issued by Angus & Robertson in 1980,[8] which sold considerably more copies than his earlier, 1973 version.

Ross's emphatic legal victory did not receive a lot of publicity at the time; and many people today still labour under the misapprehension that it was Kit Denton's 1973 book that was the source for the movie.

[edit] Works

[edit] Drama

  • Don't Piddle Against the Wind, Mate (1977); directed by John Tasker.
  • Sound Of Silence (1978)
  • Breaker Morant (1978)
  • The Death Of Danko (1980)
  • The Right Man; or, The Political Elevation Of Harold (1982); directed by Gary Baxter.
  • The World Of Mr Gibney

[edit] Musical play

  • Norman Lindsay and his Push in Bohemia (1978)

[edit] Screenplays (film)

[edit] Screenplays (telemovies)

  • The Schippan Mystery (1984)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Mr. Don Wirth, himself a Caulfield Grammarian, who went on later to become Junior School Headmaster at Scotch College, Melbourne.
  2. ^ As well as other famous individuals such as the champion cyclist, Ken Ross (1900-1974) [1], and Ken Ross, the Melbourne jeweller.
  3. ^ For further information on others of the same name, see Kenneth Ross (disambiguation).
  4. ^ ISBN 0-7267-0997-2
  5. ^ Denton's book had been originally released in 1973: ISBN 0-207-14344-7. It is significant that Ross had no knowledge of any kind of even the existence of Denton's little-known-at-that-time and long-out-of-print book until at least the first stage performances of his own play had taken place in 1978.
  6. ^ ISBN 0-207-14065-0.
  7. ^ It has always been very clear that Tim Denton himself had no knowledge of, nor did he have any input into the publisher's 1979 decision to assert that Denton's book had any sort of connection with the movie.
  8. ^ ISBN 0-207-14268-8
  9. ^ Its World Premiere was held at Byron Bay on 19 November 1999. [2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Ross, K.G., Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts, Edward Arnold, (Melbourne), 1979. [ISBN 0-7267-0997-2]
  • Ross, Kenneth, "The truth about Harry", The Age, 26 February 2002. (Written on the hundredth anniversary of Morant's execution and the twenty-fourth anniversary of the first performance of his play, the same article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of 26 February 2002 in almost identical form [4])

[edit] External links

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