Knott, Frederick

Frederick Major Paull Knott, playwright and screenwriter, was born August 28, 1916 in Hankow, China to British missionary parents. He was sent to England at the age of ten for schooling, and he entered Cambridge University in 1934, where he excelled at tennis. During the Second World War, Knott served served as an artillery officer in the British army. After the war, Knott turned to writing and his first play was produced in 1952. He authored the plays Dial M for Murder and Wait Until Dark, which were enormously successful on Broadway and in London's West End in the 1950s and 1960s. He also wrote the screenplay for the film version of Dial M for Murder, which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954. Knott died in New York on December 17, 2002.