Arthur Robin Christiansen (27 July 1904 – 27 September 1963) was a British journalist, and editor of

Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...

's newspaper the '' Daily Express'' from 1933 to 1957. Christiansen was born in

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

to Louis Niels Christiansen, a

shipwright Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

, and his wife Ellen. From an early age, he demonstrated a talent for writing, producing a magazine for his grammar school. At 16, he became a reporter for the ''Wallasey and Wirral Chronicle'', where he worked for three years before moving to the '' Liverpool Evening Express'' and the Liverpool ''Daily Courier''. He was named the London editor of the ''Evening Express'' in 1925, a position he held for a year before moving to the ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

''. Christiansen made his reputation four years later, when, as assistant editor, he produced a special late-morning edition of the ''Sunday Express'' to report the

R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Mi ...

airship disaster.Edward Pickering, "Christiansen, Arthur Robin (1904-1963)", in ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), vol. 11, p. 527. He was the subject of '' This Is Your Life'' in 1957, when he was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...

at the BBC Television Theatre. In 1961, he was cast as the editor of the ''Daily Express'' in the

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

-based

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univ ...

thriller ''

The Day the Earth Caught Fire ''The Day the Earth Caught Fire'' is a British science fiction disaster film starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro. It was directed by Val Guest and released in 1961, and is one of the classic apocalyptic films of its era. The film ...

'', directed by

Val Guest Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he direct ...

. He also played a news editor in the 1963 medical thriller ''

80,000 Suspects ''80,000 Suspects'' is a 1963 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Yolande Donlan, and Cyril Cusack. It concerns an outbreak of smallpox in Bath, England. Plot Commencing on New Year's Eve in the ...

'', again directed by Guest. Christiansen's son,

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

, also became a newspaper editor; his grandson

Rupert Christiansen Rupert Christiansen (born 1954) is an English writer, journalist and critic. Life and career Born in London, Christiansen is the grandson of Arthur Christiansen (former editor of the '' Daily Express'') and son of Kay and Michael Christiansen (fo ...

was the Daily Telegraph opera critic until 2020.

Bibliography

*''Headlines All My Life'' (1961)

Partial filmography

*''

'' (1961) - 'Jeff' Jefferson - Editor *''

'' (1963) - Editor - Bath Evening Chronicle (Mr. Graney) (final film role)

References

1904 births 1963 deaths British male film actors British male journalists British newspaper editors British people of Scandinavian descent Daily Express people People from Wallasey {{UK-journalist-stub