T. E. B. Clarke

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T. E. B. Clarke
Born
Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke

(1907-06-07)7 June 1907
Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Died11 February 1989(1989-02-11) (aged 81)
, England, UK
Other namesTibby
Occupation(s)Writer, screenwriter
Years active1944–1980
Spouse
Joyce Caroline Steele
(m. 1932; died 1983)
RelativesDudley Clarke (older brother)
AwardsAcademy Award for Best Story and Screenplay
1952 The Lavender Hill Mob

Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke, OBE (7 June 1907 – 11 February 1989) was a film screenwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies.

Early life

Clarke was born in Watford on 7 June 1907. His father, Ernest Clarke, had been raised in Hull, moving to South Africa in the late 19th century. He was enlisted to carry dispatches for the Jameson Raid though, avoiding imprisonment, managed to obtain a job working for a gold mining company. Ernest then married Madeline Gardiner, with whom he raised three children. Their eldest child was Dudley Clarke, who would later become a pioneer of military deception operations during the Second World War. A girl, Dollie, followed.

The gold mining company Ernest had been working for then offered him an opportunity to move to their

Boer War.[1]
Upon arriving in England, Ernest purchased a house in Watford, where Madeline gave birth to their third and final child, Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke.

Always known as "Tibby", Clarke attended

The Daily Sketch tabloid newspaper. After gaining temporary employment as a publicity officer for the W. S. Crawford Advertising Agency in the late 1920s, he came into contact with the film industry for the first time.[2]

Film career

Clarke's first screen credit was for heavily modifying the script of

.

Clarke was also a novelist and writer of non-fiction, but presented at least one fictional work as fact. His book

He was awarded the OBE in 1952. He was the subject of

BBC Television Theatre
.

Bibliography

Screenplays

Non-fiction

  • Go South - Go West
  • What's Yours?
  • Intimate Relations
  • This is Where I Came In

Novels

  • Jeremy's England
  • Cartwright Was a Cad
  • Two and Two Make Five
  • Mr Spirket Reforms
  • The World Was Mine
  • The Wide Open Door
  • The Trail of the Serpent
  • The Wrong Turning
  • The Man Who Seduced a Bank
  • Murder at Buckingham Palace
  • Intimate Relations ()

References

  1. .
  2. ^ a b c Street, Sarah (rev.), "Clarke, Thomas Ernest Bennett (1907–1989)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2024. (subscription required)
  3. .
  4. ^ "T.E.B. Clarke, Writer, Dies at 81". New York Times. 15 February 1989. Retrieved 23 November 2020.

External links