Arthur Robin Christiansen (27 July 1904 – 27 September 1963) was a British journalist, and editor of Lord Beaverbrook's newspaper the '' Daily Express'' from 1933 to 1957. Christiansen was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to Louis Niels Christiansen, a shipwright, and his wife Ellen. From an early age, he demonstrated a talent for writing, producing a magazine for his grammar school. At 16, he became a reporter for the ''Wallasey and Wirral Chronicle'', where he worked for three years before moving to the ''

Liverpool Evening Express The ''Liverpool Evening Express'' was a local newspaper that circulated in Liverpool, England from 1870 to 1958. Originally published by Tinling C & Co. Ltd, the paper merged with the ''Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper pu ...

'' and the Liverpool ''Daily Courier''. He was named the London editor of the ''Evening Express'' in 1925, a position he held for a year before moving to the '' Sunday Express''. Christiansen made his reputation four years later, when, as assistant editor, he produced a special late-morning edition of the ''Sunday Express'' to report the

R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Mi ...

airship disaster.Edward Pickering, "Christiansen, Arthur Robin (1904-1963)", in ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), vol. 11, p. 527. He was the subject of '' This Is Your Life'' in 1957, when he was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ ...

at the BBC Television Theatre. In 1961, he was cast as the editor of the ''Daily Express'' in the Fleet Street-based

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

thriller ''

The Day the Earth Caught Fire ''The Day the Earth Caught Fire'' is a British science fiction disaster film starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro. It was directed by Val Guest and released in 1961, and is one of the classic apocalyptic films of its era. The film ...

'', directed by

Val Guest Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he direct ...

. He also played a news editor in the 1963 medical thriller ''

80,000 Suspects ''80,000 Suspects'' is a 1963 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Yolande Donlan, and Cyril Cusack. It concerns an outbreak of smallpox in Bath, England. Plot Commencing on New Year's Eve in the ...

'', again directed by Guest. Christiansen's son,

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

, also became a newspaper editor; his grandson

Rupert Christiansen Rupert Christiansen (born 1954) is an English writer, journalist and critic. Life and career Born in London, Christiansen is the grandson of Arthur Christiansen (former editor of the '' Daily Express'') and son of Kay and Michael Christiansen (for ...

was the Daily Telegraph opera critic until 2020.

Bibliography

*''Headlines All My Life'' (1961)

Partial filmography

*''

'' (1961) - 'Jeff' Jefferson - Editor *''

'' (1963) - Editor - Bath Evening Chronicle (Mr. Graney) (final film role)

References

1904 births 1963 deaths British male film actors British male journalists British newspaper editors British people of Scandinavian descent Daily Express people People from Wallasey {{UK-journalist-stub