
Ray Cooney
Writer · b. 1932 · London, England, UK
Raymond George Alfred Cooney (born 30 May 1932) is an English playwright, actor, and director. His biggest success, Run for Your Wife (1983), ran for nine years in London's West End and is its longest-running comedy. He has had 17 of his plays performed there. Cooney began to act in 1946, appearing in many of the Whitehall farces of Brian Rix throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was during this time that he co-wrote his first play, One For The Pot. With Tony Hilton, he co-wrote the screenplay for the British comedy film What a Carve Up! (1961), which features Sid James and Kenneth Connor. In 1968 and 1969, Cooney adapted Richard Gordon's Doctor novels for BBC radio, as series starring Richard Briers. He also took parts in them. Cooney has also appeared on TV and in several films, including a film adaptation of his successful theatrical farce Not Now, Darling (1973), which he co-wrote with John Chapman. In 1983, Cooney created the Theatre of Comedy Company and became its artistic director. During his tenure the company produced over twenty plays such as Pygmalion (starring Peter O'Toole and John Thaw), Loot and Run For Your Wife. He co-wrote a farce with his son Michael, Tom, Dick and Harry (1993). Cooney produced and directed the film Run For Your Wife (2012), based on his own play. The film however was not a success: it was savaged by critics and has been referred to as one of the worst films of all time. Cooney's farces combine a traditional British bawdiness with structural complication, as characters leap to assumptions, are forced to pretend to be things that they are not, and often talk at cross-purposes. He is greatly admired in France where he is known as "Le Feydeau Anglais", ("The English Feydeau"), in reference to the French farceur Georges Feydeau. Many of his plays have been first produced, or revived, at the Théâtre de la Michodière in Paris. In January 1975, Cooney was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Savoy Hotel. In 2005, Cooney was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. Cooney married Linda Dixon in 1962. One of their two sons, Michael, is a screenwriter. Source: Article "Ray Cooney" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movies8
Movie4.4FantasyComedyThe sheriff and his deputies from the first movie decide to take a vacation in the Caribbean. Their holiday will be short-lived, however, as the thawed murderer gets inadvertently re-frozen and brought back to life. As if that weren't bad enough, he now has the ability to remain frozen even in tropical temperatures, and he's headed south to settle some old scores.
Jack Frost 2: The Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman
2000 · 77 votes
Movie7.1DramaA working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.
The Guinea Pig
1948 · 17 votes
Movie6.8DramaJonathan Dakers' early ambition was to become a great surgeon and to marry Edie Martyn. But, on the death of his father, he is obliged to start work as a partner in a poor general practice in the Black Country. Edie falls in love with Jonathan's brother, Harold, who is killed in the Great War, and Jonathan marries her as planned. It is only afterwards that he realises he now loves another.
My Brother Jonathan
1948 · 6 votes
Movie6.3ComedyGood natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
The Night We Got the Bird
1960 · 3 votes
Movie7.0ComedyPenniless Lord Whitebait's plan to save his sinking fortunes is to open stately Whitebait Manor to the public. But the public ignores his gesture, and his fortunes fade even further, with a stream of debts threatening to run into a deluge when his daughter's fiancé demands a plush and costly wedding. Where is the cash to come from? Whitebait and his servant Spankforth's answer is a scam involving the theft of a valuable painting from the Manor. How could such a cunningly original ruse fail?
Nothing Barred
1961 · 3 votes
Movie5.9ComedyNot Now, Comrade tells the story of Rudi, a Russian ballet star who defects to the West, and the chaos that befalls those who try to help him... not least London stripper Barbara, with whom he decides to take refuge!
Not Now, Comrade
1976 · 11 votes
Movie5.1ComedyA married British furrier gives a mobster's mistress a cheap mink coat.
Not Now Darling
1973 · 7 votes
Movie5.1HorrorCrimeDuring World War II, a group of British soldiers are captured by the Japanese, tortured and their hands are cut off. Years later, a mad killer terrorizes London by cutting off the hands of his victims.
The Hand
1960 · 13 votes
Series2
- TV
The programme that tries to make the impossible possible. Each week Anneka Rice is set a challenge by a member of the public and, using only her giant Challenger truck, has to beg, borrow and otherwise persuade people to help her complete the task on time. All challenges aim to achieve something of lasting benefit, and Anneka has no idea what lies in store until the fateful moment when the challenge arrives.
Challenge Anneka
1989
- TV7.0Drama
Anthology series of plays where various disparate characters meet in the city of London.
They Met in a City
1961 · 1 votes