Bruce Robinson

At 78 years old, Bruce Robinson has this physical status:

Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English writer, screenwriter, storyteller, and actor.

He wrote and directed Withnail and I (1987), a film with comedic and tragic elements set in London in the 1960s, and he based the role of Uncle Monty in Withnail and I. He played Benvolio in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, Ken Russell, and François Truffaut.

Early life

Bruce Robinson was born in London. He grew up in Broadstairs, Kent, where he attended the Charles Dickens Secondary Modern School. Mabel Robinson and American lawyer Carl Casriel, who had a short-term friendship during World War II, were his parents. His father, a Lithuanian Jew, was a child of the Holocaust. Robinson was brutally assaulted by his stepfather Rob (an ex RAF navigator and a wholesale newsagent), who knew the child was not his son when he was young. Elly, his elder sister, was the one he asked to teach him some French.

Personal life

Robinson married Sophie Windham in 1984, and they now reside in England. They have a daughter Lily and a son Willoughby.

During the filming of Romeo and Juliet, in which Robinson appeared Benvolio, Robinson said to have been the object of unwanted sexual advances by Franco Zeffirelli. Robinson claims he later based Uncle Monty's lecherous appearance in the film Withnail and I on Zeffirelli.

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Film career

Robinson aspired to be a student and was accepted to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Benvolio in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Romeo and Juliet (1968) was his first film appearance. He appeared in Ken Russell's The Music Lovers (1970), Barney Platts-Mills' Private Road (1971), and François Truffaut's The Story of Adèle H. (1975). He was dissatisfied with writing screenplays after being out of work and living on social security benefits for many years. He was soon recruited by David Puttnam to write the screenplay for Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields (1984). Robinson was nominated for an Academy Award and received a BAFTA for his service. Robinson wrote again for Joffé on Fat Man and Little Boy in 1989. He appeared in the film Still Crazy in 1998 for a brief period of time.

He is perhaps best known as the creative force behind the loosely autobiographical film Withnail and I (1987), which he based on his time as a struggling out-of-work actor. Vivian MacKerrell, the character 'I' (Marwood), is reportedly based on his friend 'Withnail'. Despite being a failure at the box office due to its video success, it has since been branded as "one of Britain's top cult films." Richard E. Grant's acting career was also launched in the film.

Robinson's next two outings as a director (How to Get Ahead of Advertising, working him again with Richard E. Grant and Jennifer 8, a Hollywood thriller), were not as well received. Robinson became disillusioned with Hollywood's draconian film-making techniques, and he ceased directing to concentrate solely on writing. He wrote the screenplays for the films Return to Paradise (1998) and In Dreams (1999), but their directors had drastically changed them, leaving Robinson once more dissatisfied.

Robinson eventually returned to direct with a sequel to Hunter S. Thompson's book The Rum Diary, starring Johnny Depp in the principal role. Filming in Puerto Rico began on March 25, 2009, with Aaron Eckhart and Richard Jenkins on board. It was first introduced in 2011. Robinson's comedic novella Paranoia in the Launderette in 2012 was well-filled and adapted for film as A Fantastic Fear of Everything starring Simon Pegg. Robinson has completed a screenplay for his book "The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman" and a book titled They All Love Jack, in which he introduces the perpetrator as Michael Maybrick, the brother of another Ripper suspect, James Maybrick, and brother of another Ripper suspect, James Maybrick.

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