AKA: Charles Edmund DuMaresq de Clavelle
Nationality: Australian
Birthdate: 10/10/1924
Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
Death Date: 09/07/1994
Best-selling author of epic, historical novels ("Tai Pan", "Shogun" "Noble House"), who has worked as a screenwriter and director in the US since 1953, though his best film as a director is the British-produced, "To Sir, With Love" (1967). Clavell's novel "King Rat", based on his experiences in a WWII Japanese prison camp, was effectively brought to the screen in 1965 by another versatile talent, Bryan Forbes and most of his other novels have been filmed or made into TV mini-series.
Source Material (from novel)
Source Material (from novel)
Pursued Naval career, like his father and grandfather, but motorcycle accident left him with a limp that ended that career
Captain with British Royal Artillery, spent half of WWII in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp
1953
Worked as salesman before a TV pilot deal brought him to US
Moved to Hollywood and worked carpenter by day and wrote scripts by night (including "Far Alert" which was sold but never filmed)
1958
Wrote first screenplays, "The Fly" and "Watusi"
