Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Bryan Forbes

Director/actor

Born - 22 July 1926, West Ham, London, England
Died - 8 May 2013

Stocky, black-haired player, often seen as weak-willed men under pressure in his acting days, which gave little hint of the distinction he was to achieve in later years, first as a writer, and then as a sensitive director of an assortment of unusual but often commercial projects which made him a leading figure in British cinema. In later years, he also became a novelist of some note. Born John Clarke, his acting career began with the short Smith, Our Friend in 1946 and he was soon busy in the prospering UK postwar cinema: The Small Back Room (1948), Dear Mr Prohack (1949), The Wooden Horse (1950), Green Grow the Rushes (1951), The World in His Arms (1952), Appointment in London (1952, Sea Devils (1953), An Inspector Calls (1954) , The Colditz Story (1954), Passage Home (1955 ), The Baby and the Battleship (1956), The Key (1958), The League of Gentlemen (1959 and The Angry Silence (1960), both of which latter films he also wrote. He had begun penning screenplays in the mid fifties, then turned to direction with Whistle Down the Wind (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962), Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1963), King Rat (1965), The Whisperers (1966), Deadfall (1968), The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), The Raging Moon (1970), The Stepford Wives (1974), The Slipper and the Rose (1976), International Velvet (1978), Better Late Than Never (1982) and The Naked Face (1984). His last film work was the screenplay for the award-winning Chaplin in 1992. He married the actresses Constance Smith and Nanette Newman, the latter remaining his wife from 1955 until his death from heart problems and emphysema, and starring in several of his films. The TV presenter Emma Forbes is their daughter.