James Bridie

James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of the renowned Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor. He took his pen-name from his paternal grandfather's first name and his grandmother's maiden name.

Mavor studied medicine at the University of Glasgow graduating in 1913, later becoming a general practitioner, then consultant physician and professor after serving as military doctor during World War I, seeing service in France and Mesopotamia. His comedic plays saw success in London, and he became a full-time writer in 1938. He returned to the army during World War II, again serving as a doctor.

James Bridie was the founder of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, in association with joint founders art director DrTom Honeyman and cinema magnate George Singleton, who also created today`s Glasgow Film Theatre. James Bridie was the first chairman of the Arts Council in Scotland and was also instrumental in the establishment of the Edinburgh Festival. In 1950 he founded the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art, part of the Royal Conservatoire today.

Bridie worked with the director Alfred Hitchcock in the late 1940s. They worked together on:


 * The Paradine Case (1947). Bridie originally wrote the screenplay, and Ben Hecht contributed some additional dialogue. But due to casting, the characters had to be changed. So David O. Selznick had to write another script.
 * Under Capricorn (1949)
 * Stage Fright (1950)

In 1923, he married Rona Locke Bremner (1897–1985). Their son was killed in World War II. His other son Ronald (1925–2007) was also both a physician and playwright. Ronald became drama critic of The Scotsman after retiring from medicine, Director of the Scottish Arts Council and Deputy Chairman of the Edinburgh Festival. He was Professor of Drama and Head of the Drama Department at the University of Saskatchewan and was appointed C.B.E. in 1971.

James Bridie died in Edinburgh of a stroke and is buried in Glasgow Western Necropolis. The Bridie Library at the Glasgow University Union is named after him, as is the annual Bridie Dinner that takes place in the Union each December.

Quotations

 * "Boredom is a sign of satisfied ignorance, blunted apprehension, crass sympathies, dull understanding, feeble powers of attention, and irreclaimable weakness of character."