Frank Launder

Frank Launder (28 January 1906 – 23 February 1997) was a British writer, film director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat.

He was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England and began working as a screenwriter on British films in the 1930s, contributing the story for the classic Will Hay comedy Oh, Mr Porter! (1937). After writing a number of screenplays with Gilliat, including The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Night Train to Munich, the two men produced and directed the wartime drama Millions Like Us (1943). After founding their own production company Individual Pictures, they produced a number of memorable dramas and thrillers including I See a Dark Stranger (1945) and Green for Danger (1946), but were best known for their comedies including The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and most famously, the St Trinians series, based on Ronald Searle's cartoons set in an anarchic girls school. He was married to actress Bernadette O'Farrell from 1950 until his death in Monaco.

Selected films

External links

• Frank Launder at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Frank Launder at the Internet Movie Database
• BritMovie: Individual Pictures; The cinema of Launder and Gilliat
• George Sandulescu, ed., Film Director Frank Launder's Last Interview, Contemporary Literature Press, 2012