Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Italian Job screenwriter dies at 77

Troy Kennedy Martin, the British screenwriter whose credits include "The Italian Job", died of cancer on September 15 at age 77. Martin first started writing plays at the BBC in 1958, later creating "Storyboard". His most famous TV creation was Liverpool-based police drama "Z-Cars", which subsequently ran for 15 years.

His film credits include "The Italian Job", which starred Noel Coward and Michael Caine, "Kelly’s Heroes", "The Jerusalem File" and "Sweeney 2", from the TV series, "The Sweeney, created by his brother Ian Kennedy Martin". He also co-wrote the screenplay for "Red Heat" with director Walter Hill in 1988 and "Red Dust", directed by Tom Hooper, in 2004.