Beverley Cross
Encyclopedia
Beverley Cross was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

  playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, librettist
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

.

Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 into a theatrical family, Cross started off by writing children's plays in the 1950s. He achieved instant success with his first play One More River
One More River
One More River is a 1934 film directed by James Whale. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and starred Diana Wynyard. The film is based on a novel by John Galsworthy.-Cast:*Diana Wynyard - Claire Corven*Frank Lawton - Tony Croom...

, which dealt with a mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...

 in which a crew puts its first officer on trial for manslaughter. The play made its debut in 1959, starring Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....

.

Cross' second play Strip the Willow was to make a star out of his future wife, Dame Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE , better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 59 years...

, even though the play was staged only in the provinces, never receiving a London production. In 1962, he translated Marc Camoletti's classic farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...

 Boeing Boeing, which went on to have a lengthy and highly lucrative run in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

. In 1964 he directed the play in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. Another of his successes was Half a Sixpence
Half a Sixpence
Half a Sixpence is a musical comedy written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele.It is based on H.G. Wells's novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul...

, a musical comedy based on the H.G. Wells novel Kipps
Kipps
Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1905. Humorous yet sympathetic, this perceptive social novel is generally regarded as a masterpiece, and was the author's own favourite work.-Plot:...

. This opened in 1963, and like his first play, ran in London for more than a year.

He also wrote opera librettos for Richard Rodney Bennett
Richard Rodney Bennett
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE is an English composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works...

 (The Mines of Sulphur
The Mines of Sulphur
The Mines of Sulphur is an opera in three acts by Richard Rodney Bennett, his first full-length opera, composed in 1963. Beverley Cross wrote the libretto, based on his play Scarlet Ribbons, at the suggestion of Colin Graham, who eventually directed the first production in 1965...

, All the King's Men and Victory) and Nicholas Maw
Nicholas Maw
John Nicholas Maw was a British composer.-Biography:Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Maw was the son of Clarence Frederick Maw and Hilda Ellen Chambers. He attended the Wennington School, a boarding school, in Wetherby in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14...

 (The Rising of the Moon
The Rising of the Moon
"The Rising of the Moon" is an Irish ballad recounting a battle between the United Irishmen and the British Army during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.-Description:...

).

Cross later became well known for his screenplays, notably Jason and the Argonauts, The Long Ships, Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (1965 film)
Genghis Khan is a 1965 film depicting the life and conquests of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan. It was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1965 by Columbia Pictures, and was directed by Henry Levin, and starred Omar Sharif, who that same year starred in another epic, Doctor...

, and Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans (1981 film)
Clash of the Titans is an American 1981 fantasy–adventure film involving the Greek hero Perseus. It was released on June 12, 1981 and earned a gross profit of $41 million domestically, on a $15 million budget , by which it was the 11th highest grossing film of the year. A novelization of the film...

. He also adapted Half a Sixpence for the screen
Half a Sixpence (film)
Half a Sixpence is a 1967 British musical film directed by George Sidney and choreographed by Gillian Lynne. The screenplay by Beverley Cross is adapted from his book for the stage musical of the same name, which was based on Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, a 1905 novel by H.G. Wells...

. He also worked uncredited on the script for Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...

, although it's doubtful any of his material made it to the final cut.

He died in London in 1998. He was the stepfather of actors Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens is an English stage, television and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day , Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and Philip...

 and Chris Larkin
Chris Larkin
Chris Larkin is an English actor.He was born Christopher Stephens in the Middlesex Hospital in London and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is the elder son of Dame Maggie Smith, and the late Sir Robert Stephens...

.

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