Other names Tibby Role Scriptwriter Name T. B. | Years active 1944–1980 Occupation Writer, screenwriter Siblings Dudley Clarke | |
Full Name Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke Born 7 June 1907 ( 1907-06-07 ) Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK Died February 11, 1989, Surrey, United Kingdom Spouse Joyce Caroline Steele (m. 1932–1983) Books Intimate Relations: Or, Sixty Years a Bastard Movies The Lavender Hill Mob, The Titfield Thunderbolt, Hue and Cry, Passport to Pimlico, The Blue Lamp Similar People Charles Crichton, Michael Balcon, Henry Cornelius, Stanley Holloway, Douglas Slocombe | ||
Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke (7 June 1907 – 11 February 1989) was a movie scriptwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies. His scripts always feature careful logical development from a slightly absurd premise to a farcical conclusion. In 1952 he was awarded a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his script for The Lavender Hill Mob, making him one of just a handful of Britons to receive this award. He continued to work as a scriptwriter after Ealing ceased production in the mid-fifties, his later contributions including Sons and Lovers and the Disney film The Horse Without a Head.
Clarke was also a novelist and writer of non-fiction, and was not above presenting his fictions as fact – most notably the 1981 book Murder at Buckingham Palace, which purports to tell the story of a hushed-up murder in the Royal residence in 1935. Despite its including 'documentary' photographs, there is no external evidence that the book is anything but pure fiction. For The Blue Lamp (1950) he drew on his experience as a wartime reserve constable.
Clarke was the younger brother of military deception pioneer Dudley Clarke.
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1960 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.