Arthur Harold Wimperis was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 illustrator, playwright, lyricist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.

Early in his career, Wimperis was an illustrator. For 25 years beginning in 1906, he became a librettist and lyricist for musical comedies

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

, including the hit The Arcadians in 1909 and many other musicals. Beginning in 1930, he moved into writing screenplays for British films, and later Hollywood films, contributing to dozens of screenplays.

Biography

Wimperis was born in 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...

, England and educated at Dulwich College

Dulwich College

Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...

 and University College London

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. He began a career as an illustrator on the Daily Graphic

The Graphic

The Graphic was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Limited....

, but this was soon interrupted by service in the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

 from 1899 to 1902 with Paget's Horse.

1906–1930: Theatre and songwriting years

Wimperis then began a theatre writing career as a lyricist and librettist for Edwardian musical comedies in London. His first major show was The Dairymaids (1906), which was favourably reviewed by The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, though the derivative nature of the plot was noted, as was the similarity between the lyrics for the song "Mary in the Dairy" and an earlier Punch

Punch (magazine)

Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...

magazine parody of a musical comedy number which contained the words, "Mary, Mary, managed a dairy". This similarity was attributed to the paucity of rhymes for Mary, rather than deliberate plagiarism. The show was followed by The Gay Gordons written with Seymour Hicks

Seymour Hicks

Sir Arthur Seymour Hicks , better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss in 1893...

 in 1907. He next contributed songs (including "The Pipes of Pan", "I've Got a Motter", "Arcady Is Always Young", and "Half Past Two") for one of the most popular musicals of the Edwardian age, The Arcadians (1909), as well as to the short-lived The Mountaineers

The Mountaineers (opera)

The Mountaineers is an English "romantic comic opera" in three acts with a libretto by Australian-born Guy Eden and Reginald Somerville , lyrics by Eden and music by Somerville. It opened at the Savoy Theatre in London on 29 September 1909, under the management of C. H. Workman, and ran for a...

. In addition to contributing lyrics or dialogue to other shows, he then began adapting Viennese operettas into English. The best-known of these are The Balkan Princess

The Balkan Princess

The Balkan Princess is a British musical in three acts by Frederick Lonsdale and Frank Curzon, with lyrics by Paul Rubens and Arthur Wimperis, and music by Paul Rubens. It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 19 February 1910. The cast included Isabel Jay and Bertram Wallis...

(1910) and The Girl in the Taxi

The Girl in the Taxi

The Girl in the Taxi is the English-language adaptation by Frederick Fenn and Arthur Wimperis of the operetta Die keusche Susanne , with music by Jean Gilbert. The German original had a libretto by Georg Okonkowski...

(Die keusche Susanne; 1912). He also wrote for The Sunshine Girl

The Sunshine Girl

The Sunshine Girl is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with a book by Paul A. Rubens and Cecil Raleigh, lyrics and music by Rubens and additional lyrics by Arthur Wimperis. The story involves a working girl who falls in love with the heir to the factor...

(1912). Wimperis also wrote lyrics for reviews such as The Follies and The Passing Show of 1914, and many of his songs became music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 hits, such as "Gilbert the Filbert" and "I'll Make a Man of You".

He served in the Royal Artillery

Royal Artillery

The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

 as a temporary second lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...

 during the First World War, and then resumed playwriting and songwriting, including for My Lady Frayle (1916) and Pamela (1917). In 1925, he wrote the English-language adaptation of for the American production of Sigmund Romberg

Sigmund Romberg

Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...

's Louie the Fourteenth, and the next year he had another hit with Princess Charming

Princess Charming

Princess Charming is a Filipino television drama series aired on GMA Network from January 29, 2007 to April 27, 2007 and was part of GMA’s afternoon programming block called Drama Rama sa Hapon.. The series was directed by Argel Joseph...

in London. His last London success was a vehicle for Binnie Hale

Binnie Hale

Binnie Hale was an English actress and musician. Both her father, Robert Hale and younger brother, Sonnie Hale were actors. She married West End actor Jack Raine, with whom she had one daughter....

 in 1930 called Nippy. Wimperis also contributed lyrics and scenes to many other reviews and musicals in London and New York and created English-language adaptations of several French and German plays.

1930–1953: Film years

Wimperis then wrote screenplays and additional dialogue for British films. His first major film was Harmony Heaven in 1930. His film career quickly began to flourish under the guidance of director and producer Alexander Korda

Alexander Korda

Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...

. He collaborated on many screenplays with Lajos Biró

Lajos Biró

Lajos Bíró was a Hungarian novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote many films from the early 1920s through the late 1940s. He was born in Nagyvárad, Austria-Hungary and eventually moved to the United Kingdom where he worked as a scenario chief for London Film Productions run by...

. Some of his best-known films of the 1930s were The Men of Tomorrow

Men of Tomorrow (1932 film)

Men of Tomorrow is a British dramatic film, released in 1932. It was directed by Zoltan Korda and Leontine Sagan. It stars Maurice Braddell and Joan Gardner. It was Robert Donat’s debut in film.-Plot:...

(1932), Wedding Rehearsal

Wedding Rehearsal

Wedding Rehearsal is a 1932 British romantic comedy film starring Roland Young as a bachelor forced to seek a wife.-Plot:"Reggie" , the carefree Marquis of Buckminster, is happy to serve as best man at his friends' weddings, but loathes the idea of getting married himself...

(1932), The Private Life of Henry VIII

The Private Life of Henry VIII

The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 film about Henry VIII, King of England. It was written by Lajos Biró and Arthur Wimperis, and directed by Sir Alexander Korda.Charles Laughton won the 1933 Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as Henry...

(1933), Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great (1934 film)

Catherine the Great is a 1934 British historical film based on the play The Czarina by Lajos Biró and Melchior Lengyel, about the rise to power of Catherine the Great. It was directed by Paul Czinner, and stars Elisabeth Bergner as Catherine, Douglas Fairbanks Jr...

(1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 film)

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1934 adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, the classic adventure novel by Baroness Orczy. It was produced by Alexander Korda, directed by Harold Young and stars Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon, along with Raymond Massey.-Plot:...

(1934), Brewster's Millions (1935), Knight Without Armour

Knight Without Armour

Knight Without Armour is a 1937 British historical drama film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Jacques Feyder and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Biró adapted by Frances Marion from the novel by James Hilton. The music score was by...

(1937), The Divorce of Lady X

The Divorce of Lady X

The Divorce of Lady X is a 1938 British romantic comedy film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Tim Whelan and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Ian Dalrymple and Arthur Wimperis, adapted by Lajos Biró from the play Counsel's Opinion by Gilbert...

, The Drum

The Drum (1938 film)

The Drum is a 1938 British Technicolor film from the book by A. E. W. Mason. The film was directed by Zoltan Korda and produced by Alexander Korda...

(1938) and The Four Feathers

The Four Feathers (1939 film)

The Four Feathers is a 1939 adventure film directed by Zoltan Korda, starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith. Set in the 1890s during the reign of Queen Victoria, it tells the story of a man accused of cowardice. It is one of a number of adaptations of the 1902 novel...

(1939).

Wimperis also wrote the lyrics for the songs heard in the Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...

 film Sanders of the River

Sanders of the River

Sanders of the River is a 1935 film directed by Zoltán Korda, based on the stories of Edgar Wallace. It was later spoofed in the 1938 Will Hay film Old Bones of the River, which also featured the characters of Commissioner Sanders, Captain Hamilton and Bosambo seen in this film, but played by...

(1936). In the 1940s, and until his death, Wimperis worked in Hollywood for MGM. Crossing the Atlantic in 1940 at the height of the Second World War during the Battle of the Atlantic, his ship was torpedoed, and he was one of just eight survivors of the 32 people who had been in the same lifeboat. He won an Academy Award for Best Writing for his contribution to the screenplay of Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver (film)

Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright. Based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture,...

(1942), in which he also had a small acting part. He was also nominated for another Oscar for his contribution to the screenplay of Random Harvest (1942). His later films included If Winter Comes (1947), Julia Misbehaves

Julia Misbehaves

Julia Misbehaves is a 1948 romantic comedy film. It stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as a married couple who are soon separated by his snobbish family. They meet again many years later, when the daughter he has raised, played by Elizabeth Taylor, invites her mother to her wedding...

(1948), The Red Danube

The Red Danube

The Red Danube is a 1949 drama film directed by George Sidney and starring Walter Pidgeon. The film was based on the 1947 novel Vespers in Vienna by Bruce Marshall.-Plot:Shortly after World War II, British Col...

(1949), That Forsyte Woman

That Forsyte Woman

That Forsyte Woman is a 1949 romance film starring Greer Garson, Errol Flynn, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Young and Janet Leigh...

(1949), Calling Bulldog Drummond

Calling Bulldog Drummond

Calling Bulldog Drummond is a 1951 British crime film directed by Victor Saville and featuring Walter Pidgeon, Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty, David Tomlinson, and Bernard Lee. It featured the character Bulldog Drummond created by the novelist Herman Cyril McNeile, which had seen a number of...

(1951), Young Bess

Young Bess

Young Bess is a 1953 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about the early life of Elizabeth I, from her turbulent childhood to the eve of her accession to the throne of England...

(1953) and Storm Over the Nile

Storm Over the Nile

Storm Over the Nile is a 1955 film adaptation of the novel The Four Feathers, directed by Terence Young. The film not only extensively used footage of the action scenes from the 1939 film version stretched into CinemaScope, but exactly the same screenplay, almost line-for-line also then directed by...

(1955). In 1990, some of his songs were used in The Fourth War

The Fourth War

The Fourth War is a 1990 film directed by John Frankenheimer. It is set in Berlin in 1988.-Plot:Cold War drama about two gung-ho border commanders who carry out their own private war against each other on the German – Czechoslovakia border.-Cast:*Roy Scheider ... Col. Jack Knowles*Jürgen...

.

Wimperis died in Maidenhead

Maidenhead

Maidenhead is a town and unparished area within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated west of Charing Cross in London.-History:...

, Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, England at the age of 78.

External links

• Arthur Wimperis at the IMDB database
• Arthur Wimperis at the IBDB database
• Arthur Wimperis Annotated filmography at Fandango.com