Wolf Mankowitz

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Biography

Playwright, screenwriter and novelist Wolf Mankowitz was one of Britain's most prolific and successful writers. Once dubbed "the rising hope of British musical theatre," he lived an extravagant lifestyle, which included three luxury homes, although he was frequently in trouble with the taxman. Born in London's East End, his father Solomon was a Russian émigré who ran a second hand books stall. Educated at East Ham Grammar School he won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge where he edited an undergraduate magazine and worked in a bookshop part time. After leaving Cambridge he wrote several books about pottery and porcelain .

  • Primary profession
  • Writer·producer·actor
  • Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Nationality
  • British
  • Gender
  • Male
  • Birth date
  • 07 November 1924
  • Place of birth
  • Spitalfields
  • Death date
  • 1998-05-20
  • Death age
  • 74
  • Place of death
  • Bantry
  • Education
  • Downing College· Cambridge
  • Knows language
  • English language

Music

Books

Trivia

Introduced legendary producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli to each other. The two men partnered up to make the James Bond films. They returned the favor by hiring him to write the first draft of Dr. No . But Wolf decided to have his name removed, thinking the film would be a huge flop. After seeing it, he asked to have his name re-inserted, but prints were already made.

After working with Peter Sellers on "The Waltz Of The Toreadors", Mankowitz joined forces with the actor in an independent film company called Sellers-Mankowitz Productions, and they announced, as their first production, a comedy film to be entitled "Memoirs Of A Cross-Eyed Man". But the unpredictable Sellers went cold on the idea and found he had little fondness for the duties and responsibilities of a film producer, so he wound up the company very soon after it had been launched, without its having made any films. Later, Mankowitz described him as a "treacherous lunatic" - they were never reconciled.

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