Ray Cooney

Raymond George Alfred Cooney born 30 May 1932 is an English playwright actor and director His biggest success Run for Your Wife 1983 ran for nine years in Londons West End and is its longestrunning comedy He has had 17 of his plays performed there Cooney began to act in 1946 appearing in many of the Whitehall farces of Brian Rix throughout the 1950s and 1960s It was during this time that he cowrote his first play One For The Pot With Tony Hilton he cowrote the screenplay for the British comedy film What a Carve Up 1961 which features Sid James and Kenneth Connor In 1968 and 1969 Cooney adapted Richard Gordons Doctor novels for BBC radio as series starring Richard Briers He also took parts in them Cooney has also appeared on TV and in several films including a film adaptation of his successful theatrical farce Not Now Darling 1973 which he cowrote with John Chapman In 1983 Cooney created the Theatre of Comedy Company and became its artistic director During his tenure the company produced over twenty plays such as Pygmalion starring Peter OToole and John Thaw Loot and Run For Your Wife He cowrote a farce with his son Michael Tom Dick and Harry 1993 Cooney produced and directed the film Run For Your Wife 2012 based on his own play The film however was not a success it was savaged by critics and has been referred to as one of the worst films of all time Cooneys farces combine a traditional British bawdiness with structural complication as characters leap to assumptions are forced to pretend to be things that they are not and often talk at crosspurposes He is greatly admired in France where he is known as Le Feydeau Anglais The English Feydeau in reference to the French farceur Georges Feydeau Many of his plays have been first produced or revived at the Théâtre de la Michodière in Paris In January 1975 Cooney was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Londons Savoy Hotel In 2005 Cooney was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama Cooney married Linda Dixon in 1962 One of their two sons Michael is a screenwriter Source Article Ray Cooney from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30