Frederick Knott

Frederick Major Paull Knott (28 August 1916 — 17 December 2002) was an English playwright known for his ingeniously complex, crime-related plots. Though he was a reluctant writer and completed only three plays in his career, two have become classics: the London-based stage thriller Dial M for Murder, which was later filmed in Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock, and the chilling 1966 play Wait Until Dark, which also became a Hollywood film.

Knott was born in Hankow, China, the son of English missionaries, Margaret Caroline (Paull) and Cyril Wakefield Knott. He was educated at Oundle School from 1929 to 1934 and later gained a law degree from Cambridge University. He served in the British Army from 1939 to 1946, rising to the rank of Major, and eventually moved to the United States.

Although his most successful play, Dial M for Murder, was a hit on the stage, it was originally a BBC television production. As a theatre piece, it premiered at the Westminster Theatre in Victoria, London, in June 1952, directed by John Fernald and starring Alan MacNaughtan and Jane Baxter. This production was followed in October by a successful run in New York City at the Plymouth Theater, where Reginald Denham directed Richard Derr and Gusti Huber. Knott also wrote the screenplay for the 1954 Hollywood movie which Hitchcock filmed for Warner Brothers in 3D, starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, with Anthony Dawson and John Williams reprising their characters from the New York stage production, which had brought Williams a Tony Award for his role as Inspector Hubbard.

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