Abbensetts, Michael John (1938–2016), playwright and television screenwriter, was born on 8 June 1938 in Georgetown, British Guiana, the son of Neville John Abbensetts, a doctor, and his wife, Elaine. They were a middle-class family of mixed African and European heritage. Abbensetts attended ...
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Michael Abbensetts (1938–2016), by Horace Ové, 2003
© Horace Ové/National Portrait Gallery, London
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Gilbert Arthur À Beckett (1837–1891) by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Katherine Mullin
À Beckett, Gilbert Arthur (1837–1891), playwright and satirist, born at Portland House, Fulham, Middlesex, on 7 April 1837, was the eldest son of Gilbert Abbott À Beckett (1811–1856), journalist and Metropolitan Police magistrate, and his wife, Mary Anne (1817–1863), composer, daughter of Joseph Glossop...
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Hilary Spurling
Ackland, Rodney (1908–1991), playwright, was born Norman Ackland Bernstein on 18 May 1908, at 5 Palmeira Gardens, Southend, Essex, the only son of Nathan Bernstein, a Jewish mantle manufacturer originally from Warsaw, and his wife, Emily Diana Lock (c.1874–1959), a former musical comedy artiste specializing in pantomime boys under the stage name ...
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John Russell Stephens
Addison, Henry Robert (1803–1876), playwright and army officer, was born at Calcutta on 25 August 1803, the youngest of the seven known children (four daughters and three sons) of John Addison (1754–1821), a judge in the Bengal presidency who was of Irish descent, and his wife, ...
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John Russell Stephens
Albery, James [Jim] (1838–1889), playwright, was born in Swan Street, Trinity Square, Southwark, London, on 4 May 1838, the eldest of the six children of James Albery (1796–1859), rope maker and cotton-waste dealer, and his wife, Amelia Eleanor, née Bacon (...
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Ali, Dusé Mohamed [known as Dusé Mohamed] (1866–1945), journalist and playwright, was born Mohamed Ali on 21 November 1866, in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of Abdul Salem Ali, otherwise Abbas Mohamed (d. 1882), an Egyptian army officer, and his Sudanese wife. In 1876 his father sent him to study in ...
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Allen, James John [Jim] (1926–1999), playwright and scriptwriter, was born on 7 October 1926 at 31 Higher Duke Street, Miles Platting, Manchester, the second child of John (Jack) Allen, a railway labourer, and his wife, Catherine (Kitty) Lee. The family was of Irish descent. After attending local Roman Catholic schools, ...
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Allingham, John Till (1775/6–1812), playwright, was said to have been born in Ireland, and was among the ten children (four sons and six daughters) of Thomas Allingham (d. 1827), an Irish wine merchant in the City of London, and his wife, ...
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Andrews, Miles Peter (1742–1814), playwright and politician, the second son of William John Andrews, a drysalter in Watling Street, London, and his wife, Kerthrine, was baptized at St Antholin, London, on 5 October 1742. He was educated in Utrecht in the Netherlands, and intended for foreign business at ...
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Michael Billington
Arden, John (1930–2012), playwright and author, was born on 26 October 1930 at 29 Guest Road, Barnsley, the son of Charles Alwyn Arden (1891–1979), a glassworks manager, and his wife, Annie Elizabeth, née Layland (1895–1985), a primary school teacher. Educated at a preparatory school in ...
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Jessica Hinings
Arnold, Samuel James (1774–1852), playwright and theatre manager, was born at Rathbone Place, London, on 5 December 1774, the son of Samuel Arnold (1740–1802), composer, and his wife, Mary Ann Napier (1750-1812). After attending King's School, Canterbury, from 1782 to 1785 Arnold was trained as an artist. In his early career he concentrated on portraits, but became more widely recognized as a painter of panoramas. He showed a series of pictures at the ...
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Leonard R. N. Ashley
Ashton, Winifred [pseud. Clemence Dane] (1888–1965), playwright and novelist, was born on 21 February 1888 at Westcombe, Westcombe Park Road, Greenwich, London, the daughter of Arthur Charles Ashton (1862–1932), commission agent, and his first wife, Florence Bentley (1864–1890). Her father, who remarried in ...
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![Cover Ashton, Winifred [Clemence Dane] (1888–1965)](/cover/searchableMedia/odnb-9780198614128-e-1010723-graphic-1-thumbnail.jpg)
Winifred Ashton [Clemence Dane] (1888–1965) by Paul Tanqueray © Estate of Paul Tanqueray
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E. D. Cook
revised by Terry Enright
Aston, Anthony [performing name Mat Medley] (c. 1682–1753
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Aston, Joseph (1762–1844), journalist and playwright, the son of William Aston (1733/4–1826), gunsmith, was born in Deansgate, Manchester. In his youth he contributed to the Manchester Herald, a liberal newspaper, until governmental pressure and popular loyalism forced the paper's closure in 1793. In 1803 he opened a stationer's shop at ...
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Atkinson, Joseph (1742x1750–1818), playwright, was born in Dublin. He was reportedly the son of an army captain, and served in the army until he obtained a captain's commission. He fought in the War of American Independence under Francis Rawdon-Hastings, second earl of Moira, who encouraged his literary interests. In ...
