Biography
James Clavell was a writer, director and producer. He wrote the screenplay for the film The Great Escape (1963) with W. R. Burnett and received an uncredited producer credit on the same production.
Clavell also wrote screenplays for The Fly (1958) and 633 Squadron (1964). He wrote and directed To Sir, with Love (1967) and The Last Valley (1971). He is the author of the novels King Rat (1962) and Shōgun (1975), the latter adapted as a television miniseries in 1980.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Clavell served as a British Army officer during the Second World War and was a prisoner of war. He later became a naturalised American citizen and died in Switzerland in 1994.
