Bruce Robinson (1946-) b. Broadstairs, Kent, England.

Born in Kent, Robinson trained at the London’s Central School of Speech and Drama. During his third year at drama school, he was chosen to appear as Benvolio in Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968), then in Ken Russell‘s The Music Lovers (1971), he later quit acting to concentrate on writing. Robinson’s first screenplay to reach the screen was Roland Joffe’s Oscar-winning The Killing Fields (1984). Buoyed by success, he set about his directorial debut, the critically acclaimed, semi-autobiographical Withnail and I (1987), starring Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant. Its hysterical script incorporated a fine degree of pathos, making the film a precise and involving fable of love, mania and loss. Richard E. Grant also starred in Robinson’s farcical satire of the advertising industry and consumer culture, How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1988). He was inevitably wooed by Hollywood due to the cult success of Withnail and I, and his sole Hollywood feature, the serial-killer thriller Jennifer 8 (1992), flopped. Several other of his scripts were mauled beyond recognition, Robinson become disillusioned with the restrictive film-making and turned his back on directing. Robinson continued writing screenplays, and returned to acting for a cameo appearance in the 70′s rock rival film Still Crazy (1998).