Frederick Knott

Frederick Knott was born on August 28th, 1916 in China to an English missionary family. Knott earned a law degree from Cambridge University after attending Oundle School and served in the British Army from 1939-1946, achieving the rank of major.

Knott only wrote three plays during his lifetime, yet his spine-tingling thrillers ran successfully on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s, and have been standards in regional theatre and touring productions throughout the world.

His most famous script, Dial M For Murder, is about a man who plots the murder of his wealthy wife but has to improvise once she staves off his plan, and was rejected several times before playing successfully on British television in the early 1950s. It then hit the London stage to rave reviews. In 1952 the play opened on Broadway, and in 1954 was adapted by Knott into a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Grace Kelly and Ray Milland.

His second most popular play, Wait Until Dark, ran for 374 performances on Broadway in 1966 and earned actress Lee Remick a Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of a blind woman terrorised by thugs. In 1967 the play was made into a popular film of the same name starring Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn. It was revived on Broadway in 1998 in a play starring Marisa Tomei and Quentin Tarantino.

His third play, Write Me Murder, opened on Broadway in 1961 and ran for 25 weeks.

Frederick Knott passed away in 2002.