Beverley Cross

Born in London into a theatrical family, and educated at the Nautical College Pangbourne, Cross started off by writing children's plays in the 1950s. He achieved instant success with his first play, One More River, which dealt with a mutiny in which a crew puts its first officer on trial for manslaughter. The play premiered in 1958 at the New Shakespeare Theatre Liverpool, starring Robert Shaw, directed by Sam Wanamaker, and in 1959, still with Robert Shaw, directed by Guy Hamilton at the Duke of York's Theatre in London.

Cross' second play, Strip the Willow, was to make a star out of his future wife, Maggie Smith, though the play was staged only in the regions, never receiving a London production. In 1962, he translated Marc Camoletti's French farce Boeing Boeing, which had a lengthy run in the West End. In 1964, he directed the play in Sydney. Another success was Half a Sixpence, a musical comedy based on the H.G. Wells novel Kipps for which he wrote the book. This opened in 1963, and like his first play, ran in London for more than a year.

He was the stepfather of Maggie Smith's children from her earlier marriage, actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. He died in London in 1998, three weeks and three days before his 67th birthday.