Ray Rigby (b.1916,

Rochford Rochford is a town and civil parish in the Rochford (district), Rochford District in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford. At the 2011 census, the Civil parishes in England, civil parish had a population ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

– May 19, 1995,

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, Mexico) was a British screenwriter and novelist.

Career

He is mainly known for '' The Hill'', a searing account of an abusive military prison, which was directed by

Sidney Lumet Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. Lumet started his career in theatre before moving to film, where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York City, New York dramas w ...

and was greeted with critical acclaim, winning the Best Screenplay award at the

1965 Cannes Film Festival The 18th Cannes Film Festival took place from 3 to 16 May 1965. Olivia de Havilland served as jury president for the main competition, becoming the first woman to ever do so. The ''Grand Prix du Festival International du Film'', then the fetiv ...

, an honour also bestowed by the

Writers' Guild of Great Britain The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG). History The u ...

the following year, when it also won a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

for Best Screenplay. The film was inspired by Rigby's own experience in a British military prison in World War II when he spent two terms in field punishment detention centres. He co-wrote the film ''

Operation Crossbow ''Crossbow'' was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German V-weapons, long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched agai ...

'', also released in 1965. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he worked for several of the major Hollywood studios writing for top TV series, including '' Starr and Company'' and '' The Avengers''. Rigby published a novel of the story of ''The Hill'' in 1965. ''Hill of Sand'' was written as a follow-up. ''Jackson's War'' dealt with similar themes. Other novels include ''Jackson's Peace'' and ''Jackson's England''. Author Tony Burton, who knew Rigby, said he was "a born raconteur, with keen street-smarts and a ready wit. Author Alex Gratton was not exaggerating when he described Ray in a memorial piece as a "world class wit and a fabulous story teller". Rigby left Hollywood behind in 1972 and moved to Mexico, settling in Guadalajara, where he married for the fifth and final time, and lived until his death in 1995, at the age of 78.

References

British male screenwriters 1916 births 1995 deaths People from Rochford British Army personnel of World War II Prisoners and detainees of the British military 20th-century British screenwriters Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay winners British expatriates in the United States British expatriates in Mexico Military personnel from Essex British Army soldiers {{UK-screenwriter-stub