Ray Cooney
Birth : 1932-05-30, London, England, UK
History
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.
Author
Screenplay
Thanks
By following ten simple rules, 20-somethings Vince and Cameron spice up their relationship by sleeping around. But when their straitlaced friends get engaged, their relationship gets turned upside down. To put the rules to the test, they will go on the road to the Hamptons to crash the biggest party of the year where love triangles collide and off-the-wall mayhem ensues.
Theatre Play
By following ten simple rules, 20-somethings Vince and Cameron spice up their relationship by sleeping around. But when their straitlaced friends get engaged, their relationship gets turned upside down. To put the rules to the test, they will go on the road to the Hamptons to crash the biggest party of the year where love triangles collide and off-the-wall mayhem ensues.
Director
John Smith has been happily involved in a bigamous marriage for five years. He lives with Stephanie in Finsbury and Michelle in Stockwell. Fortunately, for John, he's a taxi driver which involves varying shift work! Simple? Well, when John unwittingly becomes a have-a-go hero and the Finsbury and Stockwell police forces discover something suspicious in their paperwork, John's happy bubble is about to be burst. The action of the movie takes place during the next hectic 24 hours as John, with the assistance of his gullible neighbor Gary, rush between North and South London attempting to thwart the police and prevent the two loving wives coming face to face!
Writer
John Smith has been happily involved in a bigamous marriage for five years. He lives with Stephanie in Finsbury and Michelle in Stockwell. Fortunately, for John, he's a taxi driver which involves varying shift work! Simple? Well, when John unwittingly becomes a have-a-go hero and the Finsbury and Stockwell police forces discover something suspicious in their paperwork, John's happy bubble is about to be burst. The action of the movie takes place during the next hectic 24 hours as John, with the assistance of his gullible neighbor Gary, rush between North and South London attempting to thwart the police and prevent the two loving wives coming face to face!
Novel
A parliament member suddenly finds a dead body in his hotel room...
Book
Writer
Author
Henry Perkins, a mild-mannered accountant, accidentally trades briefcases with another man, to find out that there's a million dollars inside. Henry tells his unsuspecting wife of their new-found fortune, but she doesn't embrace it as well as he does. Soon they're joined by their best friends, a cop on the take, a cop on the hunt, and the dreaded Mr. Big, who has come to claim his money.
Executive Producer
Henry Perkins, a mild-mannered accountant, accidentally trades briefcases with another man, to find out that there's a million dollars inside. Henry tells his unsuspecting wife of their new-found fortune, but she doesn't embrace it as well as he does. Soon they're joined by their best friends, a cop on the take, a cop on the hunt, and the dreaded Mr. Big, who has come to claim his money.
Author
Writer
Author
An accountant, presumed honest, inadvertently finds 7 million francs in his bag and decides to change his life.
Colonel Hickering
The 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.
Writer
A Minister and the Secretary of the Opposition party go to a 5 star hotel to conduct a secret affair. Their plans are ruined when they discover a corpse lodged in the window of their room.
Author
During a long night session at the parliament a deputy sneaks to meet his mistress in a nearby hotel.
Author
Writer
Author
Filmed stage performance of the farce "One for the pot" by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton. Billy is supposed to inherit a large sum of money but his three identical twin brothers also want a piece.
Writer
Billy is about to become the heir to a millionaire, provided that he is the only living heir. Complications arise quite soon when it turns out that Billy has three twin brothers who are also looking after heritage.
Writer
A labor party leader is having an affair with the opposing party's secretary. Unfortunately for them, there seems to be a corpse in their hotel room just as they managed to sneak in unnoticed.
Writer
George and Linda Harper's 17 year marriage has gone stale, but George doesn't seem to be aware of it. When confronted with the problem, he gets a vasectomy, which solves nothing, so he moves out. Linda rearranges her life by enrolling in self improvement courses. Trying for an amicable divorce, they agree to use one lawyer and hire their closest friend. When this backfires, George attempts reconciliation by trying to seduce Linda on their living room couch. George botches the seduction due to the pressure of trying to perform well and due to the unexpected return of their son from a date. But it does result in their realizing they still care about each other...and that marriages need working at, need to be renewed and renegotiated from time to time and that their's is certainly worth a second chance. Based on the hit West End play.
Writer
Novel
Author
Palace Hotel, Rome, the story begins with the Demitri couple, who turn out to be in a marital crisis due to their not having sex for quite some time. The husband says he has no time for that because it has to go to the interior of the Quirinal offices, but in secretly he has a date with a married woman, Mrs. Rolandi.
Author
Pablo and Fernando, owners of a children's book publishing company about to go bankrupt, have managed through unorthodox means to contract the country's best-selling author, Adela Mora. The evening of the official signing, Paco asks his friend to let him use his house for a love tryst while Fernando wines and dines Adela. At the same time, Paco's wife, Carmen, will be taking her lover to Rosa's house. From here on the rout begins, as Paco tries to get rid of Silvia, his secretary, and Carmen, her husband. Fernando thinks Rosa is cheating on him with Oscar, who thinks Fernando is gay and having an affair with his partner, while the soldier thinks his girlfriend is a professional...
Screenplay
A nervous ad executive creates havoc on his daughter's wedding day and becomes obsessed with a dream girl he keeps seeing everywhere but whom he can't catch.
Theatre Play
A nervous ad executive creates havoc on his daughter's wedding day and becomes obsessed with a dream girl he keeps seeing everywhere but whom he can't catch.
Screenplay
The peaceful existence of a New York post-office clerk is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a heavily pregnant girl on his doorstep
Director
Not 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!
Director
A married British furrier gives a mobster's mistress a cheap mink coat.
Arnold Crouch
A married British furrier gives a mobster's mistress a cheap mink coat.
Policeman (uncredited)
Penniless 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?
Screenplay
Ernie's Uncle Gabriel has just died but to claim his inheritance he must spend the night in the ancestral family home with the rest of his rather eccentric relatives. Ernie's imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels, but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when the guests begin to drop dead.
Writer
Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
Pollitt
During 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.
Original Story
During 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.
Screenplay
During 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.
A 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.
Ralph Hingston
Jonathan 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.
