Sidney Gilliat(1908-1994)

Sidney Gilliat, the English director, screenwriter, and producer, was born on February 15, 1908 in Edgely, Cheshire, England. He began his screen-writing career in the silent movie era, writing inter-titles, going uncredited for his contributions to Lune de Miel (1928), À l'américaine (1928), and Week-End Wives (1929). He first entered into a working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock on L'homme de l'île de Man (1929), for which he did uncredited research. Ten years later, he would help write the dialog for the director's La taverne de la Jamaïque (1939). He eventually became a credited screenwriter in the 1930s, with A Gentleman of Paris (1931).

He partnered with Frank Launder, whom he first worked with uncredited on Sous la verte ramure (1929), and together they wrote, directed and produced almost 40 movies between their first credited collaboration Facing the Music (1933) through The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), which they also co-directed. For Hitchcock, they co-wrote the classic Une femme disparaît (1938). They also wrote Train de nuit pour Munich (1940) for Carol Reed. Their collaboration is most famous for generating the St. Trinian's films, most notably Les belles de Saint-Trinian (1954), which was directed by Launder and featured a tour de force performance by Alastair Sim. Sim was also the star of their Une bombe pas comme les autres (1956), for which they received second straight Best British Screenplay nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Sidney Gilliat died on May 31, 1994 in Wiltshire, England. He was 86 years old.