Born in Canada, educated at McGill University. In England from the early 1950s, he began writing for British TV in 1953 and for features in 1958. After a terrific start on such diverse films as the hilarious comedy THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (1959) and the mature psychological drama THE MARK (1961), he went to Hollywood where he shared an Academy Award nomination for the script of THE COLLECTOR (1965). But much of his subsequent output, on either side of the Atlantic, failed to match the high level of his early screeplays (BREAKING POINT, 1976; DAMIEN: OMEN II, 1978; EYE OF THE NEEDLE, 1981; FIRESTARTER, 1984; CONCAN THE DESTROYER, 1984).  Nominated for Writing (Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) 1965: THE COLLECTOR (w. John Kohn) 1 nomination