George Markstein
(On Topic: | Alan Dean Foster | Anna Pasternak | Edmund Ward | George Markstein | Hugh C Rae | Ian MacKintosh | James Mitchell | John Batt | Micheal Crichton | Steve Erickson | Walter Tevis | Wilfred Greatorex | Index )
born: (1929)
Died: (January 15, 1987) A British writer of thrillers and teleplays.
He was born in Germany but emigrated to England with the rise of the Nazis. He worked as a crime reporter and a military correspondent with the US Army during the Cold War. From then on he was hooked on the study of espionage. He turned from documentary writing for television to drama, creating The Prisoner, before writing for Callan and Armchair Theatre. Together with Patrick McGoohan, he was the co-creator of the series The Prisoner, having served as script consultant and editor on McGoohan's Danger Man series.
He was co-winner of the British Writers' Guild Award for the Best Original Screenplay for the feature film Robbery in 1967, wrote the screenplay for The Odessa File and was Executive Story Editor for Thames Television before turning to full-time writing.
Markstein actually makes a fleeting appearance at the start of almost every episode of The Prisoner - as the bald, bespectacled 'man behind the desk', to whom McGoohan's character is seen angrily handing his letter of resignation.
TV Shows
- Court Martial
- Send Foster
- Robbery (1967)
- Armchair Theatre
- Special Branch (1969-70) (series editor)
- Callan (1972)
- Storyboard (1983)
- Man at the Top (producer)
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
- Shades of Greene
- London Embassy
- Mystery and Imagination (story editor)
- Frontier (script editor)
- The Prisoner (script editor)
- Danger Man (story editor)
- Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (writer)
- Mr. Palfrey of Westminster (writer)
- Storyboard (writer)
- Return of the Saint (screenplay)
Films
- The Odessa File (1974) (screenplay)
- Who Dares Wins (1982) (original story outline)
- Espion, lève-toi (1982) (based on his novel Chance Awakening)
Novels
- The Cooler (1974)
- The Man From Yesterday (1976)
- Chance Awakening (1977)
- Tara Kane (1978)
- Goering Testament (1978)
- Traitor for a Cause (1979)
- Ultimate Issue (1981)
- Soul Hunters (1987)
