Playwright Christopher Fry Dies at 97

Christopher Fry, the British playwright who was most famous for penning The Lady’s Not for Burning, died on July 1 in Chichester, England at the age of 97.

Among Fry’s early plays were Armageddon and A Sleep of Prisoners. After World War II, he wrote A Phoenix Too Frequent, about the love between a Roman soldier and a young woman who plans to bury herself with her dead husband. The 1946 London production of the piece starred a young Paul Scofield; a New York production ran for only five performances in 1950.

The Lady’s Not For Burning debuted in the West End in 1948. A year later,
John Gielgud revived the play, not only directing but starring as the soldier who returns from the 100 Years War. The cast also included two unknowns, Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. Gielgud and Burton starred in the successful 1950 Broadway production. The play was later filmed for American television in 1974 with Richard Chamberlain and Eileen Atkins in the leads, and in 1987 for British TV with Kenneth Branagh and Cherie Lunghi starring.

Fry’s other works include Venus Observed, which originally starred Laurence Olivier, and his adaptations of Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon and The Lark. He worked on the script of the Oscar-winning film Ben-Hur but did not receive any screen credit; later, he wrote the screenplays of Barabbas and The Bible. He is survived by his son, Tam Fry.