Christopher Hampton

For the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, see Christopher Hampton (bishop).
Christopher Hampton

Christopher Hampton at the Odessa International Film Festival, 2016
Born Christopher James Hampton
(1946-01-26) 26 January 1946
Horta, Faial, Azores, Portugal
Spouse(s) Laura de Holesch (1971–present)
Awards

Christopher James Hampton, CBE, FRSL (born 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement.[1]

Early life

Hampton was born in Faial, Azores, to British parents Dorothy Patience (née Herrington) and Bernard Patrick Hampton, a marine telecommunications engineer for Cable & Wireless.[2][3] His father's job led the family to settle in Aden and Alexandria in Egypt and later Hong Kong and Zanzibar. The Suez Crisis in 1956 necessitated that the family flee under cover of darkness, leaving their possessions behind.

After a prep school at Reigate, Hampton attended the independent boarding school Lancing College at the age of 13, where he won house colours for boxing and distinguished himself as a sergeant in the CCF. Fellow dramatist David Hare was a school contemporary; poet Harry Guest was a teacher.

From 1964 he read German and French at New College, Oxford, as a Sacher Scholar, and graduated with a starred First Class Degree in 1968.[4][5]

Career

Hampton became involved in the theatre while at Oxford University where OUDS performed his play When Did You Last See My Mother?, about adolescent homosexuality, reflecting his own experiences at Lancing.[2] Hampton sent the work to the play agent Peggy Ramsay, who interested William Gaskill in it.[2] The play was performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and that production soon transferred to the Comedy Theatre, resulting in Hampton, in 1966, becoming the youngest writer to have a play performed in the West End in the modern era.[2] From 1968 to 1970, he worked as the Resident Dramatist at the Royal Court Theatre, and also as the company's literary manager.[2]

Hampton won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1988 for the screen adaptation of his play Dangerous Liaisons. He was nominated again in 2007 for adapting Ian McEwan's novel Atonement.[1]

Hampton's translation into English of Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay's Austrian musical Rebecca, based on Daphne du Maurier's book, was supposed to premiere on Broadway in 2012; however, the future of this production is uncertain as of January 2013. The scheduled production became mired in scandal when "several investors were revealed to be concoctions of a rainmaking middleman."[6]

Plays

Musicals (Book and lyrics)

Adaptations

Filmography

Translations

Librettos

References

  1. 1 2 Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 405. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 John O'Mahony "Worlds of his own", The Guardian, 21 April 2001. Retrieved on 9 August 2008.
  3. ↑ Christopher Hampton Biography (1946–)
  4. 1 2 Michael Coveney Hampton "A talent to adapt", The Guardian, 4 March 2006. Retrieved on 9 August 2008.
  5. ↑ Healy, Patrick (2 January 2013). "'Rebecca' producer hoper for Broadway run in 2013". New York Times. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  6. ↑ Healy, Patrick (2 January 2013). "'Rebecca' Producer Hopes For Broadway Run in 2013". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "American Premiere of Embers Will Be Part of Guthrie's Christopher Hampton Celebration". Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  8. ↑ "Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black's Stephen Ward premieres at Aldwych in December". whatsonstage.com. Whats On Stage. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.

Bibliography

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