Bill Bryden (Bill William Campbell Rough Bryden) Biography

British playwright and director, born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, where he was educated at the High School; he worked with Scottish Television before becoming assistant director at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, in 1965. After periods at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, he joined the Royal National Theatre as associate director in 1975. From 1984 to 1993 he was Head of Drama for BBC Scotland. Bryden's best-known plays are Willie Rough (1972), a dramatization of the political fervour on Clydeside during the First World War, and Benny Lynch: Scenes from a Short Life (1974), which deals with the career of the Scottish World Fly-weight Boxing Champion. His other plays include Old Movies (1976), and Civilians (1980). His screenplay for The Long Riders (1980) was acclaimed for bringing new vitality to the Western idiom. Ill Fares the Land (1982) and The Holy City (1985) are among the films he has written and directed.