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J B FAGAN

  (1873 - 1933)
Nationality:    Irish
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

James Bernard Fagan (18 May 1873 - 17 February 1933). Born in Belfast, where his father, Sir James Fagan, was a surgeon at the Belfast Royal Hospital and an inspector of Irish reformatories, J B Fagan was an actor, theatre manager, producer and playwright in England. After turning from the law to the stage, Fagan began an acting career, including four years from 1895 to 1899 with Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at Her Majesty's Theatre. He then began writing plays, returning eventually to acting during World War I. In 1920 he took over London's Court Theatre as a Shakespearean playhouse and soon began to produce plays at other West End theatres. His adaptation of Treasure Island in 1922 was a hit and became an annual Christmas event until the outbreak of World War II. He was the first manager of the Oxford Playhouse for several years in the 1920s. As a producer, he popularised Anton Chekhov and Sean O'Casey in Britain. In 1929, he was a director of the Festival Theatre, Cambridge. Beginning in the 1920s, several of Fagan's plays were adapted for film. Fagan moved to Hollywood in 1929 for the filming by Paramount of his play The Wheel as The Wheel of Life. Other film work included his co-adaptation of the screenplay for the 1932 film Smilin' Through, and he co-wrote Paramount's Forgotten Commandments the same year. His play Bella donna was filmed four times, including posthumously in 1946 (as Temptation), and a 1936 film, The Improper Duchess was based on his 1931 play of the same name. Fagan married first actress Elizabeth Kirby in 1897 and then another actress, who acted under the stage name of Mary Grey. She was previously Mrs. Ada Bevan Ritchie, nee Ada Bryant. Among their children was Gemma Fagan, who also became an actress. His hobbies included golf and tennis. He died in Hollywood, California, at the age of 59 of a heart attack following a bout of influenza

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below is a list of J B Fagan's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

        And So To Bed         Bella Donna         Doctor O'Toole         Earth, The         Hawthorne Of the USA         Improper Duchess, The         Prayer Of the Sword, The         Treasure Island         Under Which King?         Wheel