William Pettigrew Templeton (7 June 1913 – 23 October 1973) was a Scottish playwright and screenwriter who contributed a string of episodic dramas for American prime time television during the

Golden Age of Television The first Golden Age of Television is an era of television in the Television in the United States, United States marked by its large number of live productions. The period is generally recognized as beginning in 1947 with the first episode of th ...

in the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

At 20 Templeton wrote the one-act play ''The King's Spaniel'', which ran at the

Royal Lyceum Theatre The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658-seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by a ...

, Edinburgh. In 1937, his first three-act play ''Circus Murder'', was picked up and produced by Jevan Brandon Thomas at the

Theatre Royal, Glasgow The Theatre Royal is the oldest theatre in Glasgow and the longest running in Scotland. Located at 282 Hope Street, its front door was originally round the corner in Cowcaddens Street. It currently accommodates 1,541 people and is owned by Scott ...

, then exported to London by the producer

Esme Church Esme Church (10 February 1893 – 31 May 1972) was a British actress and theatre director. In a long career she acted with the Old Vic Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company and on Broadway. She directed plays for the Old Vic, became head of the ...

for a run at the West End's

Noël Coward Theatre The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre in St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster, London. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's ...

(1938) under the title ''The Painted Smile''. Theatre critic W.A. Darlington of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' called it a'' "cleverly created illusion."'' After being decommissioned from the RAF after World War II, Templeton wrote several West End plays in succession including: *(1946) ''Exercise Bowler'' (

Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

then transferred to the

Scala Theatre The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was kn ...

) produced by Alec Clunes *(1948) ''The Ivory Tower'' (

The Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each ...

) produced by Charles B. Cochran *(1950) ''You Won't Need the Halo'' (

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberl ...

) produced by Alec Clunes *(1954) ''Keep in a Cool Place'' (

Saville Theatre ODEON Covent Garden is a four-screen cinema in the heart of London's West End. Formerly known as The Saville Theatre, a former West End theatre at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in the London Borough of Camden. The theatre opened in 1931, and became a ...

) produced by Jevan Brandon Thomas

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theatre critic James Agate wrote that ''Exercise Bowler'' "has an immense amount to say, is inventive, brilliantly theatrical and magnificently laid out for actors." Templeton wrote the largely anti-war play under the pseudonym 'T. Atkinson,' a generic slang name for a British soldier at the time.

Hollywood career

In the late 1940s, Templeton started to move away from theatre and began writing for film and television. In 1948, he contributed dialogue to Graham Greene's script for The '' Fallen Idol'' directed by

Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for ''Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...

based on the short story by Greene. The film won the 1949 BAFTA award for best British film. In 1950, Templeton's screenplay adaptation of the book ''All On A Summer’s Day'' by HLV Fletcher became the British crime thriller ''

Double Confession ''Double Confession'' is a 1950 British crime film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, William Hartnell and Peter Lorre. The screenplay, written by William Templeton, is based on the novel, ''All On A Summer's Day'' ...

'' directed by

Ken Annakin Kenneth Cooper Annakin, Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 August 1914 – 22 April 2009) was an England, English film director. His career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in 2002, and in the 1960s he was notice ...

, starring

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

. In television, Templeton contributed to several prime time series of the period, including: ''

The Alcoa Hour ''The Alcoa Hour'' is an American anthology television series that was aired live on NBC from 1955 to 1957. The series was sponsored by Alcoa. Overview Like the ''Philco Television Playhouse'' and ''Goodyear Television Playhouse'' that had prec ...

'' (1954–57); ''

The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The U ...

'' (1960); the original '' Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1957) with Richard Greene; and the ''

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse ''Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse'' is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System between 1958 and 1960. Three of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s televisio ...

'' anthology series broadcast by CBS from 1948 to 1958 and produced by Desi Arnez. In 1954,

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television critic Jack Gould wrote that Templeton's adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel, ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...

'', "''was a masterly adaptation that depicted with power and poignancy and terrifying beauty the end result of thought control."''

Personal life

Templeton married the Hungarian actress Elizabeth Getrude Esterházy on 22 September 1953 in Westport, Connecticut.

Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Samuel John Goldwyn Jr. (September 7, 1926 – January 9, 2015) was an American film producer. Early life Samuel Goldwyn Jr. was born on September 7, 1926, in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Frances Howard (born Frances Howard McL ...

was his best man. They were divorced in 1961. They had one child, Christopher. On 23 October 1973, Templeton died of

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

at the age of 60 in Glasgow.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Templeton, William Pettigrew 1913 births 1973 deaths Deaths from cirrhosis Scottish dramatists and playwrights Scottish film directors Scottish screenwriters Scottish television directors Writers from Glasgow 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British screenwriters