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John McGrath (1935-2002)

Birthplace:
Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK

Born:
July 1, 1935

Died:
January 22, 2002

Biography from TheMovieDB

Born in Birkenhead from Irish Catholic stock, John McGrath was a British playwright, screenwriter. producer, director and socialist who took up the cause of Scottish independence and the principles of a radical, popular theatre with the creation of the 7:84 theatre company alongside his wife, Elizabeth MacLennan, and brother-in-law, David MacLennan. His most famous plays are arguably The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil which was brought to television in 1974 by John Mackenzie for the Play for Today strand, and Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun which was made into the film The Bofors Gun in 1968. He also wrote the screenplays for films such as Billion Dollar Brain, The Virgin Soldiers, The Reckoning, The Dressmaker and 1991's Robin Hood, and produced films such as Carrington and Aberdeen.

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Additional information:

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Film Performances

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Film Production

Co-Producer:
2000  Aberdeen

Director:
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Shotgun
1969  Double Bill
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
2000  Aberdeen

Executive Producer:
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Shotgun
1969  Double Bill
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
1988  The Dressmaker
1993  The Long Roads
2000  Aberdeen

Novel:
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Shotgun
1969  Double Bill
1970  Ende der Vorstellung 24 Uhr
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
1988  The Dressmaker
1993  The Long Roads
2000  Aberdeen

Producer:
1964  The Diary of a Nobody
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Exit 19
1966  Shotgun
1969  Double Bill
1970  Ende der Vorstellung 24 Uhr
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
1988  The Dressmaker
1993  The Long Roads
1995  Carrington
1996  Half The Picture
2000  Aberdeen
????  Fade to Black

Screenplay:
1964  The Diary of a Nobody
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Exit 19
1966  Shotgun
1967  Billion Dollar Brain
1969  Double Bill
1970  Ende der Vorstellung 24 Uhr
1970  The Reckoning
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
1988  The Dressmaker
1993  The Long Roads
1995  Carrington
1996  Half The Picture
2000  Aberdeen
????  Fade to Black

Script:
1964  The Diary of a Nobody
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Exit 19
1966  Shotgun
1967  Billion Dollar Brain
1969  Double Bill
1970  Ende der Vorstellung 24 Uhr
1970  The Reckoning
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
1988  The Dressmaker
1993  The Long Roads
1995  Carrington
1996  Half The Picture
2000  Aberdeen
????  Fade to Black

Writer:
1964  The Diary of a Nobody
1965  The Day of Ragnarok
1966  Exit 19
1966  Shotgun
1967  Billion Dollar Brain
1968  The Bofors Gun
1969  Double Bill
1969  The Virgin Soldiers
1970  Ende der Vorstellung 24 Uhr
1970  The Reckoning
1971  Orkney
1972  The Bouncing Boy
1974  The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
1980  The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
1986  Blood Red Roses
1988  The Dressmaker
1991  Robin Hood
1993  The Long Roads
1994  Mairi Mhor
1995  Carrington
1996  Half The Picture
2000  Aberdeen
????  Fade to Black

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TV Production

Creator:
1990  Border Warfare

Director:
1962  Z-Cars
1964  Six
1970  Play for Today
1990  Border Warfare

Writer:
1962  Z-Cars
1964  Six
1970  Play for Today
1990  Border Warfare

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While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

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  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.