Quick Facts
Biography
Denis Cannan (14 May 1919 – 25 September 2011) was a British dramatist, playwright and script writer. Born Denis Pullein-Thompson, the son of Captain Harold J. Pullein-Thompson and novelist Joanna Cannan, he changed his name by deed poll in 1964. His younger sisters were Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson.
Born in Oxford, he was educated at Eton College. After attending Eton he worked as an actor, before joining the Queen's Royal Regiment of West Surrey when the Second World War broke out, rising to the rank of captain and being mentioned in dispatches.
He was married to Joan Ross in 1946; the couple had two sons and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved, and he later remarried, to Rose Evansky in 1965
Denis Cannan became a successful playwright and screenwriter. Apart from the plays listed below, he has written several screenplays for television and radio, also adaptions for television series. With Christopher Fry he adapted The Beggar's Opera for the 1953 film starring Laurence Olivier.
Selected plays
- Captain Carvallo (1950)
- Misery Me! (1955)
- The Power and the Glory (adaptation) (1956)
- US (1966)
- Colombe
- Dear Daddy
- Ibsen's Ghosts (adaptation)
- Max
- One At Night
- The Ik (adaptation)
- You and Your Wife
- Who's Your Father?