Paul Dehn | |
|---|---|
| Born | Paul Dehn (1912-11-05)5 November 1912 Manchester, England |
| Died | 30 September 1976(1976-09-30) (aged 63) Chelsea, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1950–1974 |
Paul Edward Dehn (/ˈdeɪn/DAYN; 5 November 1912 – 30 September 1976) was an English screenwriter, best known forGoldfinger,The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,Planet of the Apes sequels andMurder on the Orient Express. Dehn and his life partner,James Bernard, won theAcademy Award for Best Story forSeven Days to Noon.
Dehn was born in 1912 inManchester, England. He was educated atShrewsbury School, and attendedBrasenose College, Oxford.[1] While at Oxford, he contributed film reviews to weekly undergraduate papers.
He began his career in 1936 as a film reviewer for several London newspapers. He was film critic for theNews Chronicle until its closure in 1960 and then for theDaily Herald until 1963.[2]
DuringWorld War II, he was stationed atCamp X inOntario,Canada. This was one of several training facilities operated by the BritishSpecial Operations Executive to train spies and special forces teams. According to the British writer and former spyJohn le Carré, Dehn worked in the Special Operations Executive(SOE) as an assassin duringWorld War II.[3] He was the Political Warfare officer from 1942 to 1944 and held the rank of Major. Dehn took part in missions in France and Norway.[4]
He narrated the 1951 filmWaters of Time and later wrote plays, operettas and musicals for the stage. He wrote the lyrics for songs in two films,Moulin Rouge (1952) andThe Innocents (1961).
In 1949 or 1950, Dehn began a collaboration with composerJames Bernard. Dehn asked Bernard to collaborate with him on the original story for theBoulting Brothers filmSeven Days to Noon (1950).
Through the 1960s, Dehn concentrated on screenwriting for espionage films, includingGoldfinger (1964),The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), andThe Deadly Affair (1967). He later wrote the screenplays for the second, third, and fourth originalPlanet of the Apes movies and received the story-by credit on the fifth. He wrote thelibretto forWilliam Walton's operaThe Bear and two byLennox Berkeley;A Dinner Engagement andCastaway.
His last screenplay was forSidney Lumet's all-starMurder on the Orient Express (1974), based on theAgatha Christiewhodunit, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was working on adaptingEvil Under the Sun when he died.[5]
Dehn resurrected or reinvented at least three genres given up for dead at the time; the British mystery, the Shakespeare adaptation, and the spy film.[6]
