Trivia

In 1943-1944 he was chief instructor at Camp X in Ontario. His wartime experience helped him write screenplays for films like "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and "Goldfinger".

Unmarried. His long-term partner until his death was the composer/writer James Bernard.

He was one of several film-world personalities approached by the magazine "Films And Filming" in 1963 and asked what films they would take with them if they were to be exiled to a desert island (a variant on the idea behind the famous radio program "Desert Island Discs"). Dehn's selection of favorite films included Minnelli's "Meet Me In St. Louis", Hitchcock's "The Trouble With Harry", Chaplin's "City Lights", Olivier's "Henry V", Lean's "Lawrence Of Arabia", Sjoberg's "The Great Adevnture", the documentary "Thursday's Child", Truffaut's "Les Quatre Cent Coups" and two films directed by Anthony Asquith, "The Browning Version" and a film Dehn had written himself, "Orders To Kill".

He was film critic for the London "News Chronicle" newspaper for many years until it ceased publication at the start of the 1960s; he then moved for three years to the London "Daily Herald", leaving it in the Spring of 1963 to concentrate full-time on writing screenplays.

Uncle of the actresses Kika Markham and Petra Markham of make up artist Sonia Markham and of writer Jehane Markham. Brother-in-law of David Markham.

Dehn's experience in wartime espionage made him a good choice to adapt John Le Carre's novel "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" for the cinema. Indeed, Le Carre, who had worked for several years for British Intelligence before becoming a novelist, said that Dehn knew far more about the world of espionage than he himself did. He did another Le Carre adaptation straight after "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", a version of Le Carre's first novel, "Call For The Dead". retitled "The Deadly Affair".

Father: Frederick Dehn; Mother: Helen.

He wrote a screenplay based on L.P. Hartley's novel "The Go-Between" in the early 1960s, but it was not used when Joseph Losey's famous 1971 film was finally made from that novel.

He was also a poet and well-known as a lyric-writer (often sharply satirical) for West End revues before becoming established as a screenwriter. The music for his songs was often composed by his partner, James Bernard.