William Templeton (screenwriter)

William Pettigrew Templeton (7 June 1913 - 23 October 1973) was a Scottish playwright and screenwriter who made a major contribution to the Golden Age of Television^[1][2] writing a string of episodic dramas for American prime time television during the 1950s and 1960s,^[3] a time when many hour-long anthology drama series received wide critical acclaim. As Gore Vidal pointed out with uncharacteristically glowing enthusiasm in 1956, it was also the “Golden Age for the Dramatist”. William had a long film career both in the UK and the US. His adaptation of The Fallen Idol (also known as The Lost Illusion) a 1948 film with Ralph Richardson directed by Carol Reed and based on the short story The Basement Room by Graham Greene was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.^[4]

Early life

Templeton wrote his way out of the Gorbals slums on the south bank of the River Clyde Glasgow by being one of the youngest playwrights to have a production performed in the West End of London. At 20 he wrote a One Act play The King's Spaniel which ran at the Royal Lyceum Theatre and then at 24, his first three act play Circus Murder was picked up and produced by Jevan Brandon Thomas at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1937 and then quickly exported to London by the producer Esme Church for a run at the New Theatre (1938) under the title The Painted Smile. Theatre critic WA Darlington^[5] of The Daily Telegraph called it “a cleverly created illusion”. From his new London base, Templeton continued to write a string of successful West End plays, including:

• (1946) Exercise Bowler - (Arts & Scala Theatres) produced by Alec Clunes
• (1948) The Ivory Tower - (The Vaudeville Theatre) produced by Charles B. Cochran
• (1950) You Won’t Need the Halo (Arts Theatre) produced by Alec Clunes
• (1954) Keep in a Cool Place - (Saville Theatre) produced by Jevan Brandon Thomas

Hollywood career

At the height of his theatre career in the early 1950s, Templeton started to attract the attention of Hollywood and secured a series of contracts from major film companies including Sir Alexander Korda at London Films, Walt Disney, Desilu and Universal.^[6] He became best known for his 1950 adaptation of Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984^[7] (“It was a masterly adaptation that depicted with power and poignancy and terrifying beauty the end result of thought control”, Jack Gould, The New York Times)^[8] and his screenplay adaptation of the book All On a Summer's Day by HLV Fletcher which became the 1950 British crime film Double Confession directed by Ken Annakin, starring Peter Lorre and a cast that read like a who's who of the best British character actors around in 1950.^[9]

But arguably his best work was yet to come with the advent of television. As a new medium, television introduced many innovative programming concepts, and prime time television drama showcased both original and classic productions. Comfortable writing for a variety of genres Templeton was able to contribute to all the major television drama series of the time including the The Alcoa Hour (1954–1955);^[10] The Untouchables (1960); the original Adventures of Robin Hood^[11] series (1957) with Richard Greene and the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse^[12] anthology series broadcast by CBS from 1948 to 1958 and produced by Desi Arnez. It was at this time that the Studio One producer declared William Templeton to be “One of the country’s most distinguished writers in television”.

Personal life and death

William married once on 22 September 1953 to the Hungarian actress Elizabeth Getrude von Esterhazy in Westport Connecticut. Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. was his best man. The acrimonious marriage lasted until 1964 when the couple were divorced. They had one child Christopher Fredrick Templeton. Like many writers of his generation, Templeton was a heavy drinker. He lost his writing contract at Disney when Disney himself, who was of temperance stock,^[13] found a bottle in Templeton’s writing desk and throwing it through a window, told the writer to follow the bottle. On 23 October 1973, Templeton died of cirrhosis at the age of 60 at the Glasgow home of his elderly aunt, having just directed a trilogy of documentary programmes for NBC titled The Distant Drummer (1972)^[14] narrated by Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum and Rod Steiger.

Filmography

References