Peter Cotes
Peter Cotes (19 March 1912 – 10 November 1998) was an English director, producer, actor, writer and production manager.[1]
Cotes was born as Sydney Boulting[2] in Maidenhead, Berkshire.[3] His twin brothers John and Roy Boulting became noted film makers.[2] He began as an actor, before concentrating on theatre production.[4] He was the original director of the world's longest-running production The Mousetrap, still playing at the St Martins Theatre, London.[5] He wrote several books, including an acclaimed biography of Charlie Chaplin in 1951.[4]
He was twice married: Myfanwy Jones (marriage annulled) and Joan Miller (widowed 1988).[5] He died from natural causes in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, aged 86.[4]
Cinema and television credits
As actor
- Pal O'Mine (1936) ... Archie
- Pastor Hall (1940) ... Erwin Kohn
- Fingers (1941) (uncredited)
- The Gentle Sex (1943) (uncredited) ...Taffy
- Don't Take It to Heart (1944) ...Patterson, Junior Counsel
- The Way to the Stars (1945) ...Aircraftsman
- Beware of Pity (1946) ...Kosma
- The Upturned Glass (1947) ... Questioner
As writer
- London Playhouse (3 episodes, 1955–56)
- Lady Must Sell (1955) (adaptation)
- Summer in Normandy (1955) (production supervisor)
- The Guv'nor (1956) TV episode (production supervisor)
- ITV Playhouse (1 episode 1956)
- Ashes in the Wind (1956) (adaptation)
- ITV Play of the Week (1 episode 1965)
- Winter in Ischia (1965) (television adaptation)
As producer
- London Playhouse (5 episodes 1955–56)
- The Inward Eye (1955) (producer)
- Lady Must Sell (1955) (producer)
- Fighting Chance (1955) (producer)
- Adeline Girard (1955) (supervising producer)
- Yesterday's Mail (1956) (producer)
- ITV Playhouse
- Woman in a Dressing Gown (1956) (producer)
- BBC Sunday Night Theatre
- The Road (1953) (producer)
- What the Public Wants (1959) (producer)
- The World of Wooster
- Jeeves and the Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustice (1966) (associate producer)
- Jeeves and the Indian Summer of an Uncle (1966) (associate producer)
As director
- BBC Sunday Night Theatre (1 episode 1953)
- The Road (1953) (uncredited)
- The Right Person (1955)
- London Playhouse (3 episodes 1955–56)
- Area Nine (1955)
- Lady Must Sell (1955)
- Yesterday's Mail (1956)
- Sword of Freedom (1 episode 1957)
- Alessandro (1957)
- The Young and the Guilty (1958)
- ITV Television Playhouse (5 episodes 1956–58)
- Ashes in the Wind (1956)
- Woman in a Dressing Gown (1956)
- The Young and the Guilty (1956)
- Not Proven (1957)
- Look in Any Window (1958)
- ITV Play of the Week (1 episode 1964)
- The Offence (1964) (TV episode)
- Janie Jones, at the New Theatre, London, (opened 15 July 1968)
Selected theatre credits
- The Mousetrap (1952, director of original London stage production)
References
- http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9fa70004
- Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 352. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
- https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/c24b0ef9-2614-3d8f-a0c3-398799ca4a10
- https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/18/theater/peter-cotes-86-producer-and-director-of-mousetrap.html
- https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-peter-cotes-1184306.html
External links
- Peter Cotes on IMDb
- Peter Cotes at the Internet Broadway Database