Sewell Stokes
Encyclopedia
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes (16 November 1902 London
- 2 November 1979 London
) was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes
, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum
. It was here that Sewell Stokes did much of his writing in the Reading Room
, used by so many distinguished writers over the years.
, London, Stokes was educated at Cranleigh School
in Surrey and his first job in 1918 was as a book reviewer and gossip writer with The Sunday Times
in London. Three years later he became assistant editor for T.P.'s Weekly, a radical newspaper founded in 1902 by the Irish journalist and member of parliament Thomas Power O'Connor.
The author became friendly with the American dancer Isadora Duncan
towards the very end of her life, when she was penniless and alone, and in 1928, shortly after her death, wrote a memoir of his conversations with her entitled Isadora, an Intimate Portrait. Years later, he co-wrote the film script for the BBC TV film, Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
, with director Ken Russell
. Starring Vivian Pickles
and Peter Bowles
, the film was first broadcast on 22 September 1966. In 1968 his memoir of Duncan, together with her autobiography, My Life, were adapted by Melvyn Bragg
for the film Isadora
(US title: The Loves of Isadora), directed by Karel Reisz
and starring Vanessa Redgrave
and James Fox
. In his 1954 novel Recital in Paris the character of Sarah Menken was substantially modelled on that of Isadora Duncan
.
Stokes, together with Christine Jope-Slade, wrote the play Britannia of Billingsgate
, which was produced by A. R. Whatmore
at the St Martin's Theatre
, London, on 30 November 1931 and made into a film of the same name, directed by Sinclair Hill
, in 1933. Other screenwriting successes followed in 1934 with Rolling in Money
, directed by Albert Parker
, and in 1941 when Stokes co-wrote, with Lydia Hayward, the script for the film You Will Remember, directed by Jack Raymond
. The film was based on the life of the popular late Victorian songwriter Leslie Stuart
, played here by Robert Morley
, and co-starred Emlyn Williams
as Stuart's best friend.
Stokes co-wrote a series of plays with his brother, Leslie
, beginning with Laura Garnett, whose main character had much in common with Isadora Duncan
. The play was first performed at Dobbs Ferry, New York State, in July 1934 with Ethel Barrymore
and later in the Arts Theatre
Club, London, in September 1936 with Mary Clare
playing the title role.
The Four Partners, a play in German by Jochen Huth, was adapted by Stokes and produced by Margaret Webster at London's Q Theatre
in October 1936.
Oscar Wilde
was the most successful of the Stokes brothers' plays. The play was based on the life of Oscar Wilde
in which Wilde's friend, the controversial author and journalist Frank Harris
, appears as a character. Starring Robert Morley
, John Bryning and Frith Banbury
, directed by Norman Marshall, the play had its first production at London's Gate Theatre Studio
in 1936. Recast, with Francis L. Sullivan
in the title role, it was revived at London's Arts Theatre Club
in 1938. Because of its subject matter the play was not granted a licence by the Lord Chamberlain
and could, therefore, only be staged in England at a theatre club where membership was required. There were no such problems in New York where the play opened the same year, again with Morley in the title role, on Broadway
at the Fulton Theatre
where it ran for 247 performances.
At that time Robert Morley
was known in America only through his portrayal of Louis XVI, the French King, in the film Marie Antoinette
and it was his success with the role of Wilde that launched his career as a stage actor on both sides of the Atlantic. The play, which contains much of Wilde's actual writings, opens in Algiers where Wilde and his friend Lord Alfred Douglas are on holiday together. They return to London for the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest
and to attend Wilde's libel suit against the Marquis of Queensbury, Lord Alfred's father. Wilde's own trial and conviction follow and the play ends in Paris with his decline into alcoholism after his release from prison.
The Stokes brothers continued there collaboration with Out of Sight, a play about prison life, first presented at the Gate Theatre Studio on 4 March 1937 where it was directed by Norman Marshall and later the same year there was another production of the play at the Tavistock Little Theatre which was directed by Vincent Pearmain. Next came Frozen Glory, a play about polar exploration, first performed at the Gate Theatre Studio on 10 February 1938 where it was directed by A.E.Filmer.
From 1941 to 1945 he served as a probation officer
at Bow Street Magistrates' Court
, London, and in 1950 he wrote an autobiographical account of his experiences there, entitled Court Circular published in paperback by Pan Books. In 1952 the book was made into the film I Believe in You
, directed by Basil Dearden
& Michael Relph
and starring Celia Johnson
, Cecil Parker
, Harry Fowler
, Joan Collins
and George Relph
. Stokes described a tour through British prisons of the day in his book Come to Prison, published in 1957, and in 1965 his book Our Dear Delinquents, on a similar theme, was published.
Stokes was a close friend of the actor Robert Morley
and in 1953 wrote, Without Veils. The Intimate Biography of Gladys Cooper, about Morley's mother-in-law, the actress Gladys Cooper
. Later, in 1966, he co-wrote a biography of Robert Morley
himself entitled Robert Morley "Responsible Gentleman". The title alludes to the fact that Morley started his acting career as a "responsible gentleman", an actor who portrayed professional men such as doctors, lawyers and official receivers in bankruptcy cases.
In 1955 Stokes completed the novel, Beyond His Means, based on the life of Oscar Wilde
. The film Oscar Wilde
, based on the Stokes brothers' play, and directed by Gregory Ratoff, starred Robert Morley
, Ralph Richardson
, was released in 1960. This coincided with the release of The Trials of Oscar Wilde
, a film directed by Ken Hughes, in which Peter Finch
played the title role. The title of Stokes's memoir, Rarely Pure, published in 1952, was taken from the line "The truth is rarely pure and never simple" spoken by character Algernon Moncrieff in Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest. The memoir is subtitled "The Memoirs of a Young Man in Search of Sex".
Stokes worked as a screenplay advisor on Tony Richardson
's films The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
(1962), starring Tom Courtney
and Michael Redgrave
, and on Tom Jones
(1963), starring Albert Finney
and Susannah York
, and based on the novel of the same name by Henry Fielding
.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
- 2 November 1979 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes
Leslie Stokes
Leslie Stokes was an English playwright and BBC radio producer and director.As a young man Leslie Stokes was an actor and later became a playwright and BBC radio producer and director. Together with his brother, author and playwright Sewell Stokes, he co-wrote a number of plays, including the...
, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. It was here that Sewell Stokes did much of his writing in the Reading Room
British Museum Reading Room
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside...
, used by so many distinguished writers over the years.
Life
Born in HampsteadHampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, London, Stokes was educated at Cranleigh School
Cranleigh School
Cranleigh School is an independent English boarding school in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. It was founded in 1865 as a boys' school and started to admit girls in the early 1970s. It is now co-educational. The current headmaster is Guy de W...
in Surrey and his first job in 1918 was as a book reviewer and gossip writer with The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
in London. Three years later he became assistant editor for T.P.'s Weekly, a radical newspaper founded in 1902 by the Irish journalist and member of parliament Thomas Power O'Connor.
The author became friendly with the American dancer Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
towards the very end of her life, when she was penniless and alone, and in 1928, shortly after her death, wrote a memoir of his conversations with her entitled Isadora, an Intimate Portrait. Years later, he co-wrote the film script for the BBC TV film, Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World, was a BBC TV film based on the life of the American dancer Isadora Duncan first broadcast on 22 September 1966. The film was written by Sewell Stokes and the director Ken Russell and starred Vivian Pickles and Peter Bowles.Sewell Stokes became...
, with director Ken Russell
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
. Starring Vivian Pickles
Vivian Pickles
Vivian Pickles , is an English actress.She began her career as a child star after being chosen by Mary Field for a series of Saturday Morning children's films, including the lead roles in Jean's Plan and the serial The Adventures of Peter Joe...
and Peter Bowles
Peter Bowles
-Early life:Bowles was born in London, England, the son of Sarah Jane and Herbert Reginald Bowles. His father was a chauffeur and butler at a stately home in Warwickshire; but, upon the outbreak of World War II, he was seconded to work as an engineer at Rolls-Royce and moved the family to Nottingham...
, the film was first broadcast on 22 September 1966. In 1968 his memoir of Duncan, together with her autobiography, My Life, were adapted by Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
for the film Isadora
Isadora
Isadora is a 1968 biographical film which tells the story of celebrated American dancer Isadora Duncan. It stars Vanessa Redgrave, James Fox and Jason Robards....
(US title: The Loves of Isadora), directed by Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
and starring Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
and James Fox
James Fox
James Fox, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:James Fox was born in London, England to theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington. He is the brother of actor Edward Fox and film producer Robert Fox. The actress Emilia Fox is his niece and the actor Laurence Fox is his son. His...
. In his 1954 novel Recital in Paris the character of Sarah Menken was substantially modelled on that of Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
.
Stokes, together with Christine Jope-Slade, wrote the play Britannia of Billingsgate
Britannia of Billingsgate
Britannia of Billingsgate is a 1933 British musical comedy film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Violet Loraine, Gordon Harker, Kay Hammond and John Mills. A family who work in the fish trade at Billingsgate Market encounter a film crew who are shooting there...
, which was produced by A. R. Whatmore
A. R. Whatmore
A. R. Whatmore was a British actor, playwright and producer of plays.- Early life :Arthur Reginald Whatmore was born on 30 May 1889 at Much Marcle in Herefordshire, the son of Charles Arthur Whatmore and his wife Emma...
at the St Martin's Theatre
St Martin's Theatre
St Martin's Theatre is a West End theatre, located in West Street, near Charing Cross Road, in the London Borough of Camden. It was designed as one of a pair of theatres with the Ambassadors Theatre by W.G.R...
, London, on 30 November 1931 and made into a film of the same name, directed by Sinclair Hill
Sinclair Hill
Sinclair Hill was a British film director and screenwriter. He directed nearly fifty films between 1920 and 1939. He was born as George Sinclair-Hill in London in 1894...
, in 1933. Other screenwriting successes followed in 1934 with Rolling in Money
Rolling in Money
Rolling in Money is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Albert Parker and starring Isabel Jeans, Leslie Sarony and John Loder. An impoverished duchess arranges a marriage for her daughter to a wealthy working-class London barber. It was an adaptation of the play Mr. Hopkinson by R.C...
, directed by Albert Parker
Albert Parker
Albert Parker was the owner of The Claxton Bakery and creator of the Old Fashion Claxton Fruitcake. Parker got his start working with Savino Tos, the founder and previous owner of The Claxton Bakery, in 1927 when he was eleven years old. In 1945, Tos sold the bakery to Albert Parker and retired...
, and in 1941 when Stokes co-wrote, with Lydia Hayward, the script for the film You Will Remember, directed by Jack Raymond
Jack Raymond
Jack Raymond was a British actor and film director. Born in Wimborne, Dorset in 1886, he began acting before the First World War in A Detective for a Day. In 1921 he directed his first film and gradually he wound down his acting to concentrate completely on directing - making more than forty films...
. The film was based on the life of the popular late Victorian songwriter Leslie Stuart
Leslie Stuart
Leslie Stuart was an English composer of early musical theatre, best known for the hit show Florodora and many popular songs. Stuart began writing songs in the late 1870s, including songs for blackface performers, such as "Lily of Laguna"; songs for musical theatre; and ballads such as "Soldiers...
, played here by Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
, and co-starred Emlyn Williams
Emlyn Williams
George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....
as Stuart's best friend.
Stokes co-wrote a series of plays with his brother, Leslie
Leslie Stokes
Leslie Stokes was an English playwright and BBC radio producer and director.As a young man Leslie Stokes was an actor and later became a playwright and BBC radio producer and director. Together with his brother, author and playwright Sewell Stokes, he co-wrote a number of plays, including the...
, beginning with Laura Garnett, whose main character had much in common with Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
. The play was first performed at Dobbs Ferry, New York State, in July 1934 with Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
and later in the Arts Theatre
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
Club, London, in September 1936 with Mary Clare
Mary Clare
Mary Clare was a British actress who performed in films, on the stage, and later on television.-Biography:...
playing the title role.
The Four Partners, a play in German by Jochen Huth, was adapted by Stokes and produced by Margaret Webster at London's Q Theatre
Q Theatre
The Q Theatre, seating 490 in 25 rows with a central aisle, was opened in 1924 near Kew Bridge in west London by Jack and Beatie de Leon, and was one of a number of small, committed, independent theatre companies which included the Hampstead Everyman, the Arts Theatre Club and the Gate Theatre Studio...
in October 1936.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (play)
The play Oscar Wilde, written by Leslie & Sewell Stokes, is based on the life of the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in which Wilde's friend, the controversial author and journalist Frank Harris, appears as a character...
was the most successful of the Stokes brothers' plays. The play was based on the life of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
in which Wilde's friend, the controversial author and journalist Frank Harris
Frank Harris
Frank Harris was a Irish-born, naturalized-American author, editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day...
, appears as a character. Starring Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
, John Bryning and Frith Banbury
Frith Banbury
Frith Banbury, MBE was a British theatre actor and stage director.- Biography :Frith Banbury was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 4 May 1912. He was the son of Rear Admiral Frederick Arthur Frith Banbury and his wife Winifred...
, directed by Norman Marshall, the play had its first production at London's Gate Theatre Studio
Gate Theatre Studio
The history of London's Gate Theatre Studio, often referred to as simply the Gate Theatre, is typical of many small independent theatres of the period....
in 1936. Recast, with Francis L. Sullivan
Francis L. Sullivan
Francis Loftus Sullivan was an English film and stage actor. He attended Stonyhurst, the Jesuit public school in Lancashire, England whose alumni include Charles Laughton and Arthur Conan Doyle.A heavily built man with a striking double-chin and a deep voice, Sullivan made his acting debut at the...
in the title role, it was revived at London's Arts Theatre Club
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
in 1938. Because of its subject matter the play was not granted a licence by the Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
and could, therefore, only be staged in England at a theatre club where membership was required. There were no such problems in New York where the play opened the same year, again with Morley in the title role, on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Fulton Theatre
Fulton Theatre/Helen Hayes Theatre
The Fulton Theatre was a Broadway Theatre located at 210 West 46th Street in New York that was opened in 1911. It was re-named the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1955. The theatre was demolished in 1982...
where it ran for 247 performances.
At that time Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
was known in America only through his portrayal of Louis XVI, the French King, in the film Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (1938 film)
Marie Antoinette is a 1938 film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette...
and it was his success with the role of Wilde that launched his career as a stage actor on both sides of the Atlantic. The play, which contains much of Wilde's actual writings, opens in Algiers where Wilde and his friend Lord Alfred Douglas are on holiday together. They return to London for the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
and to attend Wilde's libel suit against the Marquis of Queensbury, Lord Alfred's father. Wilde's own trial and conviction follow and the play ends in Paris with his decline into alcoholism after his release from prison.
The Stokes brothers continued there collaboration with Out of Sight, a play about prison life, first presented at the Gate Theatre Studio on 4 March 1937 where it was directed by Norman Marshall and later the same year there was another production of the play at the Tavistock Little Theatre which was directed by Vincent Pearmain. Next came Frozen Glory, a play about polar exploration, first performed at the Gate Theatre Studio on 10 February 1938 where it was directed by A.E.Filmer.
From 1941 to 1945 he served as a probation officer
Probation officer
Parole officers and probation officers play a role in criminal justice systems by supervising offenders released from incarceration or sentenced to non-custodial sanctions such as community service...
at Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court was the most famous magistrates' court in England for much of its existence, and was located in various buildings on Bow Street in central London close to Covent Garden throughout its history.-History:...
, London, and in 1950 he wrote an autobiographical account of his experiences there, entitled Court Circular published in paperback by Pan Books. In 1952 the book was made into the film I Believe in You
I Believe in You (film)
I Believe in You is a 1952 film directed by Basil Dearden. It stars Celia Johnson and Cecil Parker and is based on the book Court Circular by Sewell Stokes.-Cast:*Celia Johnson as Matty Matheson*Cecil Parker as Henry Phipps...
, directed by Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...
& Michael Relph
Michael Relph
Michael Relph was a British art director and producer. He was the son of actor George Relph....
and starring Celia Johnson
Celia Johnson
Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE was an English actress.She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter , for which she received a nomination for the...
, Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....
, Harry Fowler
Harry Fowler
Harry James Fowler, MBE is an English actor in film and TV. He started in juvenile roles, most notably in the first recognised Ealing Comedy Hue and Cry, made in 1947...
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
and George Relph
George Relph
George Relph was an English actor. He acted in more than a dozen movies, and also many plays. He served in the British Armed Forces in World War I, and was shot in the leg, hindering his return to acting. But Relph eventually got back on stage, and his career continued...
. Stokes described a tour through British prisons of the day in his book Come to Prison, published in 1957, and in 1965 his book Our Dear Delinquents, on a similar theme, was published.
Stokes was a close friend of the actor Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
and in 1953 wrote, Without Veils. The Intimate Biography of Gladys Cooper, about Morley's mother-in-law, the actress Gladys Cooper
Gladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
. Later, in 1966, he co-wrote a biography of Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
himself entitled Robert Morley "Responsible Gentleman". The title alludes to the fact that Morley started his acting career as a "responsible gentleman", an actor who portrayed professional men such as doctors, lawyers and official receivers in bankruptcy cases.
In 1955 Stokes completed the novel, Beyond His Means, based on the life of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
. The film Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (film)
Oscar Wilde is a 1960 biographical film about Oscar Wilde, made by Vantage Films and released by 20th Century Fox.-Production:The film was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by William Kirby, from a screenplay by Jo Eisinger, based on the play Oscar Wilde by Leslie Stokes and Sewell Stokes...
, based on the Stokes brothers' play, and directed by Gregory Ratoff, starred Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
, Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
, was released in 1960. This coincided with the release of The Trials of Oscar Wilde
The Trials of Oscar Wilde
The Trials of Oscar Wilde also known as The Man with the Green Carnation and The Green Carnation, is a 1960 British film based on the libel and subsequent criminal cases involving Oscar Wilde and the Marquess of Queensberry. It was produced by Irving Allen, written by Allen and Ken Hughes and...
, a film directed by Ken Hughes, in which Peter Finch
Peter Finch
Peter Finch was a British-born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as "crazed" television anchorman Howard Beale in the film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a...
played the title role. The title of Stokes's memoir, Rarely Pure, published in 1952, was taken from the line "The truth is rarely pure and never simple" spoken by character Algernon Moncrieff in Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest. The memoir is subtitled "The Memoirs of a Young Man in Search of Sex".
Stokes worked as a screenplay advisor on Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
's films The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" is a short story by Alan Sillitoe which was set in Irvine Beach, and published in 1959 as part of a short story collection of the same name. The work focuses on Colin, a poor Nottingham teenager from a dismal home in a blue-collar area, who has bleak...
(1962), starring Tom Courtney
Tom Courtney
Thomas William Courtney is a former American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics....
and Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
, and on Tom Jones
Tom Jones (film)
Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...
(1963), starring Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
and Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
, and based on the novel of the same name by Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
.
Biographies
- Personal Glimpses (T. Werner Laurie, London, 1924)
- Isadora, an Intimate Portrait (Brentanno's Ltd, New York, 1928)
- Pilloried! (D.Appleton & Co., New York, 1929)
- Hear the Lions Roar (H.Shaylor, London, 1931)
- Monologue (Hutchison, London, 1934)
- Court Circular (Michael Joseph, London, 1950)
- Rarely Pure (Peter Davis, London, 1952)
- Without Veils: the intimate biography of Gladys Cooper, introduction by Somerset Maugham (Peter Davis, London, 1953)
- Come to Prison (Longmans, London/New York, 1957)
- Our Dear Delinquents (Heineman, London, 1965)
- Robert Morley - Responsible Gentleman (with Robert Morley; Heineman, London, 1966)
- Robert Morley - A Reluctant Autobiography (with Robert Morley; Simon & Schuster, New York, 1967)
- Isadora, an Intimate Portrait (Panther, London, 1968)
Plays
- Britannia of Billingsgate, a comedy in four acts, by Christine Jope-Slade and Sewell Stokes, Samuel French Ltd, French's Acting Edition No 194, London 1931.
- Laura Garnett, by Leslie & Sewell Stokes, A Play in Three Acts, 1934.
- The Four Partners, a Comedy in Three Acts, adapted from the German of Jochen Huth by Sewell Stokes, 1936.
- Out of Sight, by Leslie & Sewell Stokes, Secker & Warburg, London, 1937.
- Oscar Wilde, a play in 3 acts with a preface by Lord Alfred Douglas, by Leslie & Sewell Stokes, M. Secker & Warburg, London, 1937.
- Frozen Glory, by Leslie & Sewell Stokes, Secker & Warburg, London,1938.
- Half an Hour in Quod: a sketch, by Leslie & Sewell Stokes, Samuel French, London, 1938.
- Mother's Boy, A Comedy in Two Acts, starring David TomlinsonDavid TomlinsonDavid Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English film actor. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.-Early life:Born...
and Peggy MountPeggy MountMargaret Rose "Peggy" Mount OBE, was an English actress of stage and screen. She was perhaps best known for playing battleaxe characters, though her real personality was said to have been far removed from such roles. She was also well-known for her distinctive voice.- Early life :Mount was born in...
, 1964.
Articles & Letters
- Sheila Kaye-Smith Letters, 1909-1937 by Sheila Kaye-SmithSheila Kaye-SmithSheila Kaye-Smith was an English writer, known for her many novels set in the borderlands of Sussex and Kent in the English regional tradition...
& Sewell Stokes. - The Story of J.M.B. by Sewell Stokes, Theatre Arts, Vol.XXV No.11, New York: Theatre Arts Inc, Nov 1941, pp 845–848.
- W.Somerset Maugham, by Sewell Stokes, Theatre Arts, 29, 94-100, New York, Feb.1945.
- A Conversation in Ebury Street by Sewell Stokes, The London Magazine, Nov. 1956.