Phillip George Rock (July 30, 1927 - April 3, 2004) was an American actor, author and screenwriter.

Biography

Phillip Rock was the son of

Vitagraph Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...

silent film star, producer and director Joe Rock and Australian silent film actress Louise Granville and was the nephew of assistant director, cameraman and actor Murray Rock. He was raised in both England and

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

then become a page at CBS. He made his motion picture debut as a film actor in ''

The Mask of Dimitrios ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and written by Frank Gruber, based on the 1939 novel of the same title written by Eric Ambler (in the United States, it was published as ''A Coffin for Dimitrios'' ...

'' (1944). He served in the United States Navy towards the end of World War II. After completing his naval service Rock made some more film appearances and began writing screenplays. In 1951 Rock's older sister actress Felippa Rock married the Australian actor

Michael Pate Michael Pate OAM (born Edward John Pate; 26 February 1920 – 1 September 2008) was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Early life Pate was born in Drum ...

. Pate and Rock collaborated on the story that became the screenplay of '' Escape from Fort Bravo'' (1953), Rock's first screenwriting credit. The pair later cooperated on the screenplay for

Allan Dwan Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was ...

's final film ''

Most Dangerous Man Alive ''Most Dangerous Man Alive'' is a 1961 American science fiction film, produced by Benedict Bogeaus, directed by Allan Dwan (the final film of his long career), that stars Ron Randell, Debra Paget, and Elaine Stewart. The film was distributed ...

'' (1960). In 1967 Rock made his debut as a novelist with a novelization of his screenplay '' The Extraordinary Seaman'' for John Frankenheimer. The film was shot in 1967 but not released until 1969 with what some feel was tampering of the screenplay and completed film by

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

. The experience led Rock to vow to never have any of his novels made into films. His next novel was ''The Dead in Guanajuato'' (1968) set in Mexico where Rock worked on ''The Extraordinary Seaman''. In 1969 he began a series of novelisations of successful Hollywood films such as ''

The Cheyenne Social Club ''The Cheyenne Social Club'' is a 1970 American Western comedy film written by James Lee Barrett, directed and produced by Gene Kelly, and starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda and Shirley Jones. The film is about an aging cowboy who inherits a b ...

'' (1969), '' ...tick...tick...tick...'' (1970), '' Dirty Harry'' (1971), ''

A Gunfight ''A Gunfight'' is a 1971 American Western film directed by Lamont Johnson, starring Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash. The film was financed by the Jicarilla Apache Tribe, although there are no leading Native American characters in the story. ...

'' (1971), ''

Hickey & Boggs ''Hickey & Boggs'' is a 1972 American neo-noir crime film written by Walter Hill and directed by Robert Culp. Plot Culp and Bill Cosby, formerly Culp's co-star on '' I Spy'', play weary, hard-luck private eyes Al Hickey and Frank Boggs hir ...

'' (1972), and ''

High Plains Drifter ''High Plains Drifter'' is a 1973 American Western film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who ...

'' (1973) that led him to the attention of

Ernest Tidyman Ernest Ralph Tidyman (January 1, 1928 – July 14, 1984) was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of '' Shaft'' w ...

. Tidyman had Rock assist him with his 1974 novel ''Dummy'' with Rock writing manuscripts for his later ''

Shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

'' novels ''Goodbye Mr. Shaft'' (1973) and ''The Last Shaft'' (1975).Aldous, Steve. ''The World of Shaft: A Complete Guide to the Novels, Comic Strip, Films and Television Series'' McFarland, 21 Sep 2015. p. 41. Rock returned to writing novels with ''Flickers'' (1977) loosely based on his father's career in 1920s Hollywood. He followed this with a trilogy of novels of an English family of the 1920s the Stanmores of Abbingdon Pryory with ''The Passing Bells'' (1979), ''Circles of Time'' (1981) and ''A Future Arrived'' (1985). Rock died of cancer in 2004 and was survived by his son film actor Kevin Rock and two grandchildren.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rock, Phillip 1927 births 2004 deaths American male film actors American male comedians American male screenwriters 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters