Willy Russell

Biography

William Russell (born 23 August 1947 in Whiston, Merseyside) is a British playwright, screenwriter, author, lyricist and composer.

Willy comes from a working class background. After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also writing songs which were performed in local folk clubs. He also contributed songs and sketches to local radio programmes. At 20 years of age, he returned to college and became a teacher in Toxteth. Around this time he met his later wife, Annie, and became interested in writing drama.

His first success was a play about The Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert commissioned for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and transferring to the West End in 1974. Three of his later plays became outstanding successes. One was Educating Rita, about a working-class female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. The semi-autobiographical Educating Rita was made into a film in 1983 starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The second was the musical Blood Brothers for which Russell also composed the music. It was produced in 1983; first opening in Liverpool and then transferring to London, where it was highly successful and recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary (April 2007), performing at the Phoenix Theatre. Bill Kenwright opened a new production in 1988, and the show also opened on Broadway in 1993. The third play was Shirley Valentine, which first opened in Liverpool in 1986 before a new production opened in London in 1988 starring Pauline Collins. It was also made into a successful film in 1989, again with Collins in the title role. Russell received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.

Russell has also received acclaim for his work on television, including the one-off drama, Our Day Out, which aired in 1977. He penned another television drama, One Summer, which aired as a five-part series on Channel 4 in 1983, starring a young David Morrissey.

In 2000, Russell published his first novel The Wrong Boy. In epistolary form, main character Raymond Marks, a 19-year old from Manchester, tells the story of his life in letters to his hero Morrissey.

Willy Russell has written songs since the early 1960s, and has written the music to most of his plays and musicals. He also penned "The Show", which was the theme song to the 1985 ITV drama series "Connie" and which became a top 30 hit for vocalist Rebecca Storm. His first album, Hoovering the Moon, was released in 2003.

Source:
Wikipedia contributors, "Willy Russell," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Willy Russell&oldid=191974334 (accessed February 26, 2008). [Read More...]

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