Fry, Christopher, 1907–2005, English dramatist, b. Bristol as Christopher Fry Harris. Like his friend and mentor, T. S. Eliot Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns Eliot), 1888–1965, American-British poet and critic, b. St. Louis, Mo. One of the most distinguished literary figures of the 20th cent., T. S. Eliot won the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature.
..... Click the link for more information. , he was one of the few 20th-century dramatists to write successfully in verse. Fry's first major success was The Lady's Not for Burning (1949), a wry comedy set in the Middle Ages in which love overcomes prejudice and hypocrisy. His other works include Venus Observed (1950), The Dark Is Light Enough (1954), Yard of Sun (1970), and English versions of plays by Anouilh (Ring Round the Moon, 1950, The Lark, 1955), Giraudoux (Tiger at the Gates, 1955), Ibsen (Peer Gynt, 1970), and Rostand (Cyrano de Bergerac, 1975). Among his screenplays were Ben Hur (1959; Academy Award) and The Bible (1966).

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1978); studies by E. Roy (1968), S. M. Wiersma (1970), and G. Leeming (1990).

Fry, Christopher

orig. Christopher Harris

(born Dec. 18, 1907, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died June 30, 2005, Chichester, West Sussex) British playwright. He worked as an actor, director, and playwright before achieving success with The Lady's Not for Burning (1948), an ironic comedy in verse set in medieval times. Noted for his wit and his religious preoccupations, he wrote other verse plays, including Venus Observed (1950), A Sleep of Prisoners (1951), The Dark Is Light Enough (1954), and A Yard of Sun (1970). He also wrote several television plays and collaborated on the screenplays of Ben Hur (1959) and Barabbas (1962).