Ray Cooney

Raymond George Alfred Cooney OBE, born in London, England on 30 May 1932, is an English playwright, actor, and director whose career spans more than seven decades. He is best known as the author of Run for Your Wife, which opened in London's West End in 1983 and ran for nine years, making it the longest-running comedy in West End history. Cooney received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play in 1979 and has had 17 of his plays produced in the West End.

Cooney began his acting career in 1946 and spent much of the 1950s and 1960s performing in the Whitehall farces staged by Brian Rix. It was during this period that he co-wrote his first play, One for the Pot. In 1961, he collaborated with Tony Hilton on the screenplay for the British comedy film What a Carve Up!, a production featuring Sid James and Kenneth Connor. Between 1968 and 1969, he adapted Richard Gordon's Doctor novels for BBC radio as a series starring Richard Briers, also taking acting roles in the productions.

Cooney co-wrote the theatrical farce Not Now, Darling with John Chapman in 1967, and the play later served as the basis for a 1973 film adaptation in which he also appeared. His Broadway credits include both Not Now, Darling and Run for Your Wife, the latter bringing him to Broadway in 1989. In 1983, he founded the Theatre of Comedy Company and served as its artistic director, overseeing more than twenty productions during his tenure, among them Pygmalion starring Peter O'Toole and John Thaw, Loot, and Run for Your Wife. He later co-wrote the farce Tom, Dick and Harry with his son Michael, a screenwriter, which was produced in 1993.

In addition to his stage work, Cooney directed and produced a 2012 film version of Run for Your Wife, based on his own play. He also co-directed the 1976 film Not Now, Comrade, adapted from his play Chase Me, Comrade. His bibliography encompasses more than twenty plays, including Two into One, Out of Order, Funny Money, and Caught in the Net. Several of his works have been adapted into films in multiple countries, including Spain, Norway, Hungary, and Italy.

Cooney's television appearances include a role in the 2000 Last of the Summer Wine episode "Last Post and Pigeon," in which he played a wordless French peasant, as well as an uncredited appearance in the Dial 999 episode "A Mined Area." In January 1975, he was the subject of the television program This Is Your Life, surprised by host Eamonn Andrews at London's Savoy Hotel. In the 2005 New Year Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. Cooney married Linda Dixon in 1962, and the couple have two sons. His work has earned particular admiration in France, where he is referred to as "Le Feydeau Anglais," a reference to the French farceur Georges Feydeau, and several of his plays have been produced or revived at the Théâtre de la Michodière in Paris.