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J. O. C. Orton

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J. O. C. Orton
Born(1889-08-30)30 August 1889[1]
St. John's Wood, London, England
DiedMay 1962 (aged 72–73)
London, England
OccupationScreenwriter
LanguageEnglish

Captain John Overton Cone Orton MC (30 August 1889 – May 1962) was a British screenwriter.

Early life and military service

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Orton was born in St. John's Wood, London in 1889[2] and lived in Larchmont, New York, USA for a brief period of his childhood.[1] In 1909 he joined the Norfolk Regiment of the British Army.[3] In 1918 Orton was awarded with the Military Cross, and was included in the 1919 Birthday Honours when he was awarded the Air Force Cross.[1]

Film career

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He was a head of the story department for Gaumont-British and was known for writing comedy scripts for such stars as Will Hay, Jack Hulbert and Arthur Askey.[4] He also wrote various dramas and directed five movies. His final credit was as co-writer of fellow Gaumont alum Alfred Hitchcock's short war propaganda film Bon Voyage.

Val Guest called him "a charming, rather boring, fellow – there was nothing wrong with him, he wasn’t a very creative person unless he’d sold a story and came to work on the thing, but we never sat on a story with Joc and wrote...He was an ideas man, but not a very good one. They would sometimes say to Joc Orton, how he got his credits was, they’d say while we were working on something, Ted would call him or Frank “See if you can get something on the bus service, someone running a pirate bus” and Joc would go away and write a treatment, and the treatment when it came down to us, if it was one for us, … we would read it and say, “Yes its an idea, but that’s fucking awful and that needs more, and Ted would say “Kick it around.”, and we would take the script from there. And do the rewrites. Joc mostly did treatments of ideas they flung at him."[5]

Select credits

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Captain John Overton Cone Orton (1889–1962)". The Lafayette Negative Collection. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Lot 733". Dix Noonan Webb. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  3. ^ "The London Gazette" (28304). 5 November 1909: 8106. Retrieved 10 November 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ "NATIONAL STUDIOS". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 25 September 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  5. ^ Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
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