Norman Hudis, English screenwriter, Died at 93

  Dead Famous

Norman Hudis was born on July 27, 1922, in England and died on February 8, 2016.

He was an English writer.

He was known for film, theatre and television and is most closely associated with the first six of the “Carry On” film series, for which he wrote the screenplays; beginning with Carry on Cabby (1963) he was replaced by Talbot Rothwell.

Norman Hudis started his writing career on a local newspaper, the Hampstead & Highgate Express.

After World War II broke out he joined the RAF and served in the Middle East writing for Air Force News.

Just like many other post-war writers, his first foray into entertainment was writing for camp concerts.

When the war had ended, he decided to become a playwright, but only one of his plays Here Is The News met with critical success.

That gave him recognition by Pinewood Studios, who offered him a job as trainee screenwriter.

After the two years he spent there he failed to get any of his screenplays into production.

Norman Hudis left Pinewood and became a freelance writer and was soon to become a prolific screenwriter of B movies during the 1950s.

Norman Hudis was the writer for the biopic The Tommy Steele Story (1957).

The writer met the film producer Peter Rogers in the year of its release who offered him the job of writing another screenplay for Tommy Steele (The Duke Wore Jeans, 1958), which was directed by Gerald Thomas.

(And the Peter Rogers’ film producer wife Betty Box, who produced the Doctor film series, mostly worked with Gerald’s brother, the director Ralph Thomas).

The producer and director team of Peter and Gerald chose Norman Hudis to rewrite the screenplay to R. F. Delderfield’s The Bull Boys.

Norman Hudis took the job and the screenplay became the first of the Carry On… film series as Carry On Sergeant.

After the success of this Carry On début, Norman Hudis wrote a further five Carry On’s (Carry On Nurse; Carry On Teacher; Carry On Constable; Carry On Regardless and Carry On Cruising) the high point being his second, Carry On Nurse, which was the UK’s top grossing film of 1959.

Norman Hudis decided to move permanently to the United States in 1966 as he had received offers of work following the successful American release of Carry On Nurse. His American television writing credits include The Wild Wild West, The F.B.I., The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii Five-O, Cannon and Baretta.

Norman Hudis carried on writing for film, TV and theatre.

He was the co-writer of the long-running play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners, which has played around the world since 2003, and he also wrote the one-man play Jeffrey Archer’s Prison Diaries by FF 8282, the authorized adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s intensely personal diaries which were written during his incarceration, both of which are produced by Marc Sinden Productions.

Norman Hudis also wrote the semi-autobiographical play Dinner with Ribbentrop about his time working with the notoriously anti-Semitic actor Eric Portman.

Norman Hudis son, Stephen R. Hudis is a Hollywood director.

Norman Hudis sister Sylvia Holness [Norman Hudis] resided in England.

During 2008, Norman Hudis wrote his autobiography No Laughing Matter: How I Carried On, published by Apex Publishing Ltd.

Norman Hudis passed away at 93 yrs old.