John Mortimer - Wikipedia John Mortimer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search For people with a similar name, see John Mortimer (disambiguation). English barrister and author Sir John Mortimer CBE QC FRSL Born John Clifford Mortimer (1923-04-21)21 April 1923 Hampstead, London, England Died 16 January 2009(2009-01-16) (aged 85) Turville Heath, Buckinghamshire, England Occupation Barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author Nationality British Education Dragon School Harrow School Alma mater Brasenose College, Oxford Notable works A Voyage Round My Father Rumpole of the Bailey Notable awards Queen's Counsel (1966) CBE (1986) Knighthood (1998) Spouse Penelope Fletcher (1949–1971; divorced) Penelope Gollop (1972–2009; his death) Children with Fletcher: Sally Silverman, Jeremy Mortimer with Gollop: Emily Mortimer, Rosie Mortimer with Wendy Craig: Ross Bentley Sir John Clifford Mortimer CBE QC FRSL (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009)[1] was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, and author. Contents 1 Early life 2 Early writing career 3 Legal career 4 Later writing career 5 Personal life 6 Honours 7 Death 8 Attributes 9 Bibliography 10 Select screenwriting credits 11 References 12 External links Early life[edit] Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, the only child of Kathleen May (née Smith) and (Herbert) Clifford Mortimer (1884–1961), a divorce and probate barrister[2][3][4] who became blind in 1936 when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi[5] but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family.[6] John Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Harrow School, where he joined the Communist Party,[7] forming a one-member cell.[8] He first intended to be an actor (his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II gained glowing reviews in The Draconian)[8] and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it, advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife... [the law] gets you out of the house."[7] At 17, Mortimer went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort.[9] In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was sent down from Oxford by John Lowe, the Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield College sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC,[10] were discovered by the young man's housemaster.[8] But Mortimer was still allowed to take his Bachelor of Arts degree in law in October 1943. His close friend Michael Hamburger believed he had been very harshly treated.[11] Early writing career[edit] With weak eyes and doubtful lungs, Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II.[7] He worked for the Crown Film Unit under Laurie Lee, writing scripts for propaganda documentaries. I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama.[12] He based his first novel, Charade, on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit.[citation needed] Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955 with his adaptation of his own novel Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme. But he made his debut as an original playwright with The Dock Brief starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio's Third Programme, later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958 before transferring to the Garrick Theatre. It was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 as part of a touring double bill, Legal Fictions.[13] His play A Voyage Round My Father, given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father. It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success (first at Greenwich Theatre with Dignam, then in 1971 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, now starring Alec Guinness). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screenplay for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing, which also starred Olivier.[citation needed] Legal career[edit] Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law.[7] His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."[6] He has sometimes been cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate.[14] Mortimer did however successfully represent publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn.[7] He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.[7] In 1971, Mortimer successfully defended the editors of the satirical Oz against a charge of "conspiracy to corrupt and debauch the morals of the young of the Realm", which likely carried a sentence of 12 years of hard labour.[15][16] In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.[17] His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants' being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984.[7] Later writing career[edit] Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, inspired by his father Clifford,[18] whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor (in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim "but he turned out to be dead so he couldn't take it on"), Australian born Leo McKern played the character with gusto and proved popular; accordingly, the idea was developed into a series, Rumpole of the Bailey, for Thames Television in which McKern again took the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series featuring former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as the protagonist. Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate,[19] revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles's The Ebony Tower starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal.[20] He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts.[21] Personal life[edit] Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer, in 1949 and had a son, Jeremy Mortimer, and a daughter, Sally Silverman.[22] The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into the film of the same name, is the best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer (1971), and Rosie Mortimer (1984). He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999.[9] In September 2004, the biographer Graham Lord discovered the existence of Mortimer's second son, Ross Bentley, who had been conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, and was born in November 1961.[23][8] Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician. In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." Honours[edit] Awarded a CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998.[24] Death[edit] Mortimer suffered a stroke in October 2008. He died on 16 January 2009, aged 85, after a long illness.[25] Attributes[edit] John Mortimer was a member of English PEN. He was patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma, and was the president of the Royal Court Theatre, having been the chairman of its board from 1990 to 2000. Bibliography[edit] Charade, Mortimer's first novel, Bodley Head, London (1947); Viking, New York (1986); ISBN 0-670-81186-6 Rumming Park, Bodley Head, London (1948) Answer Yes Or No, Bodley Head, London (1950) Like Men Betrayed, Collins, London (1953); Viking, New York (1988); ISBN 0-670-81187-4 The Narrowing Stream, Collins, London (1954); Viking, New York (1989); ISBN 0-670-81930-1 Three Winters, Collins, London (1956) Heaven and Hell (including The Fear of Heaven and The Prince of Darkness) (1976) Will Shakespeare (1977) Rumpole of the Bailey (1978); ISBN 0-14-004670-4 The Trials of Rumpole (1979) Rumpole's Return (1980) Regina v Rumpole (1981) Rumpole for the Defence (1982) Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part Of Life (autobiography) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1982); ISBN 0-297-78010-7; Houghton Mifflin, New York (1982); ISBN 0-89919-133-9 The First Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1983) Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983) A Choice of Kings, in Alan Durband, ed., Playbill 3 (Nelson Thornes, 1966), ISBN 978-0091054212 Edwin and Other Plays (1984) In Character (1984); ISBN 0-14-006389-7 Paradise Postponed (1985); ISBN 0-670-80094-5 Character Parts (1986); ISBN 0-14-008959-4 Rumpole for the Prosecution (1986) Rumpole's Last Case (1987) The Second Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1987) Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988) Glasnost (BBC Radio Four, 1988) Summer's Lease (1988); ISBN 0-14-010573-5 Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989) - stand-alone publication of short story first published in The Trials of Rumpole (1979) Rumpole a La Carte (1990) Titmuss Regained (1990) Great Law And Order Stories (1990) The Rapstone Chronicles (omnibus; 1991) Rumpole On Trial (1992) Dunster (1992); ISBN 0-670-84060-2 Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths (1992) (with G K Chesterton and Ralph McInerny) The Oxford Book of Villains (1992) The Best of Rumpole: A Personal Choice (1993) Under the Hammer (1994) Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life (autobiography), Viking, London (1994); Viking, NY (1995); ISBN 0-670-84902-2 Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995) Rumpole and the Younger Generation (1995) - stand-alone publication of short story first published in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) Felix in the Underworld (1996) The Third Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1997) The Sound of Trumpets (1998) The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998) The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully (autobiography), Viking Penguin, London (2000); ISBN 0-670-89106-1; Viking Press, New York (2001); ISBN 0-670-89986-0 Rumpole Rests His Case (2002) Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002) [26] The Brancusi Trial (2003) Where There's a Will (autobiography), Viking, London (2003) ISBN 0-670-91365-0; Viking, New York (2005); ISBN 0-670-03409-6 Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004); ISBN 9780141017761 Quite Honestly (2005); ISBN 0-670-03483-5 The Scales of Justice (2005); ISBN 9780141022642 Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006); ISBN 9780670916214 The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole (2007; in United States as Rumpole Misbehaves) Rumpole at Christmas (2009) ISBN 9780670917914 Select screenwriting credits[edit] The Innocents (additional dialogue, 1961) Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) A Flea in Her Ear (1968) John and Mary (1969) Maschenka (1987) (Vladimir Nabokov novel adaptation directed by John Goldschmidt) Tea With Mussolini (1999) References[edit] ^ "Rumpole's creator Mortimer dies". BBC News Online. 16 January 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2009. ^ "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/100790. ISBN 9780198614111. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ The Law Times, vol. 232, 1961, p. 210, 'Obituary- Mr Herbert Clifford Mortimer' ^ John Mortimer Biography (1923-2009) Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine ^ page 14, Graham Lord, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate (2005) ^ a b Helen T. Verongos "John Mortimer, barrister and creator of Rumpole, is dead", Archived 3 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine International Herald Tribune, 16 January 2009. This obituary was also carried by The New York Times; a more complete version than the version on the IHT website is online here. ^ a b c d e f g Obituary, Archived 6 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2009 ^ a b c d "Sir John Mortimer: creator of Rumpole of the Bailey", Archived 24 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine The Times, 17 January 2009. ^ a b David Hughes "Sir John Mortimer: Lawyer and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey and elegised a bygone England", Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Independent, 17 January 2009. ^ Valerie Grove "Rumpole creator John Mortimer dies at 85" Archived 5 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Times, 16 January 2009. ^ Grove, Valerie (2007). A Voyage Round John Mortimer. London: Viking. pp. 83–84. ^ John Mortimer Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part of Life, 1982, p. 71. ^ "Legal Fiction: Wit, humanity and nostalgic English melancholy". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. 19 November 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2010. ^ Mortimer's biographer Valerie Grove dismisses this canard in tribute article Archived 5 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine. ^ The "Schoolkids" Oz, Soho, and the Downfall of the "Dirty Squad" flashbak.com, accessed 2 November 2020. ^ From the archive: John Mortimer on defending Felix Dennis at the Oz trial 24 June 2014 www.indexoncensorship.org, accessed 2 November 2020 ^ Brett Humphreys "The Law that Dared to Lay the Blame ..." Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, pinktriangle.org.uk; accessed 13 January 2016. ^ Robert McCrum, Mortimer Tribute, The Observer, p.29, 18 January 2009 McCrum, Robert (18 January 2009). "Accidental barrister who wielded his wit to share life's big joke". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 January 2009. Retrieved 9 April 2013. ^ Published in United States as John Mortimer. The Secret Lives of Rumpole's Creator (New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2006) ^ In appreciation of John Mortimer Archived 20 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Csmonitor, 16 January 2009; accessed 13 January 2016. ^ Daniel, Anne (2003). "John (Clifford) Mortimer". Dictionary of Literary Biography. 271 – via Literature Resource Center. ^ Obituary: Penelope Ruth Mortimer Archived 14 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 1999. ^ John Walsh "Wit, flirt, genius: John Mortimer dies aged 85" Archived 6 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 17 January 2009 ^ Robertson, Geoffrey (16 January 2009). "Obituary: Sir John Mortimer". The Guardian. ^ [permanent dead link] John Mortimer – Lasting Tribute[dead link] New link: [https://funeral-notices.co.uk/national/death-notices/notice/Sir+John+Mortimer/1980036 The obituary notice of SIR JOHN MORTIMER 16/01/2009 funeral-notices.co.uk, accessed 2 November 2020. ^ Rumpole stays the same. Hurrah www.theguardian.com, accessed 2 November 2020 The Radio Companion by Paul Donovan, HarperCollins (1991) ISBN 0-246-13648-0 Halliwell's Television Companion, Third edition, Grafton (1986) ISBN 0-246-12838-0 Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th edition, ed Ian Herbert, Gale (1981) ISBN 0-8103-0235-7 John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate by Graham Lord, Orion (2005) ISBN 0-7528-6655-9 External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: John Mortimer John Mortimer on IMDb John Mortimer at the Internet Broadway Database John Mortimer plays in Bristol University Theatre Archive John Mortimer at the BFI's Screenonline John Mortimer biography Finding Aid to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at The Bancroft Library Inventory to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Rosemary Herbert (Winter 1988). "John Mortimer, The Art of Fiction No. 106". The Paris Review. Winter 1988 (109). Recordings and Photos of the visit by Sir John to the College Historical Society in October 2007. Miller, Lucasta (7 October 2006). "The old devil: John Mortimer's colourful personal life has provided material for biographers, tabloid scandals and his own fiction. Now in his 80s, he is tackling terrorism and New Labour". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 7 October 2006. Obituary: Sir John Mortimer (BBC) Sir John Clifford Mortimer (1923-2009), barrister, playwright and writer Sitter in 7 portraits (National Portrait Gallery) Tony Lacey. "John Mortimer and Penguin". Penguin Books. Archived from the original on 8 June 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2010. Helen T. Verongos (17 January 2009). "John Mortimer, Barrister and Writer Who Created Rumpole, Dies at 85". The New York Times. v t e Works by John Mortimer Novels Rumpole's Return (1980) Paradise Postponed (1985) Summer's Lease (1988) Titmuss Regained (1990) Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004) Short fiction collections Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) The Trials of Rumpole (1979) Rumpole of the Bailey (1980) Regina v Rumpole (1981) Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983) Rumpole's Last Case (1987) Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988) Rumpole a La Carte (1990) Rumpole On Trial (1992) Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995) Rumpole Rests His Case (2002) Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2003) Plays The Dock Brief (1958) A Choice of Kings (1966) A Voyage Round My Father (1971) Films Ferry to Hong Kong (1960) The Innocents (1961) The Dock Brief (1962) Guns of Darkness (1962) Lunch Hour (1962) The Running Man (1963) Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) A Choice of Kings (1966) A Flea in Her Ear (1968) John and Mary (1969) Maschenka (1987) Tea with Mussolini (1999) TV The Dock Brief (1960) Call Me a Liar (1961) Shades of Greene (series) (1975–76) Rumpole of the Bailey (series) (1975, 1978–1992) Will Shakespeare (1978) Rumpole's Return (1980) The Ebony Tower (1984) Summer's Lease (1989) Die Fledermaus (1990) Under the Hammer (1994) Don Quixote (2000) Radio plays The Dock Brief (1957) Authority control BIBSYS: 90051964 BNE: XX1041345 BNF: cb12204860t (data) GND: 118584294 LCCN: n50005846 MBA: 285e7b68-edec-4945-b9aa-3919bdeb7e5a NDL: 00757430 NKC: jo2002112951 NLA: 36179225 NLI: 000095526 NTA: 072313609 PLWABN: 9810649342805606 SELIBR: 325130 SNAC: w6br91md SUDOC: 03068093X Trove: 1224931 VcBA: 495/301457 VIAF: 105101136 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50005846 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Mortimer&oldid=1002090166" Categories: 1923 births 2009 deaths Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford British Book Award winners Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English barristers English dramatists and playwrights English short story writers English television writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Knights Bachelor People educated at Gibbs School People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Harrow School People from Hampstead People from Wycombe District Prix Italia winners Booker authors' division English male dramatists and playwrights English male short story writers English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English writers 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English male writers British male television writers Mortimer family (drama) 20th-century British screenwriters 20th-century English lawyers Hidden categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB Webarchive template wayback links All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from November 2016 Articles with permanently dead external links Articles with dead external links from June 2016 Use dmy dates from May 2020 Use British English from August 2014 Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016 Articles with IBDb links CS1: long volume value Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikiquote Languages العربية تۆرکجه Cymraeg Deutsch فارسی Français Italiano Latina Македонски مصرى 日本語 Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Edit links This page was last edited on 22 January 2021, at 20:22 (UTC). 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