Frederic Raphael

Highest Rated: 83% Two for the Road (1967)

Lowest Rated: 17% Richard's Things (1980)

Birthday: Aug 14, 1931

Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA

A prolific, British-educated writer, American-born Frederic Raphael had published seven novels, beginning with "Obligato" (1956), before making his first significant contribution to 1960s English cinema with the overlooked comedy, "Nothing But the Best" (1964), a biting look at a social climbing playboy (Alan Bates) who commits murder to get ahead in the world. He subsequently wrote original screenplays for John Schlesinger's character study "Darling" (1965), for which he won an Oscar, and Stanley Donen's "Two for the Road" (1967) and has adapted to the screen the works of writers like Thomas Hardy ("Far From the Madding Crowd" 1967, his second pairing with Schlesinger), Iris Murdoch ("A Severed Head" 1972) and Henry James ("Daisy Miller" 1974), not to mention his own novel, "Richard's Things" (1980).