Paul Dehn

Paul Edward Dehn ( ; 5 November 1912 – 30 September 1976) was a British screenwriter, playwright, critic, and World War II intelligence officer.

He was known for writing the screenplays to Goldfinger (1964), the John le Carré adaptations The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Deadly Affair (1967), the Planet of the Apes films (1970–74), and the Sidney Lumet-directed adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

He won an Academy Award for Best Story for Seven Days to Noon (1950), and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for Orders to Kill (1958).

Early life Dehn was born in 1912 in Manchester, to Jewish parents of German descent. He had a younger sister, author Olive Dehn. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and attended Brasenose College, Oxford. While at Oxford, he contributed film reviews to weekly undergraduate papers.

He began his writing career in 1936 as a film reviewer for several London newspapers. He was lead film critic for the News Chronicle until its closure in 1960 and then for the Daily Herald until 1963.

World War II During World War II, he was stationed at Camp X in Ontario, Canada. This was one of several training facilities operated by the British Special Operations Executive to train spies and special forces teams. He was the Political Warfare officer from 1942 to 1944 and held the rank of Major. Dehn took part in missions in France and Norway, and was for a time partnered with Kim Philby. According to John le Carré, Dehn was involved in assassination operations.

He later wrote the screenplays for the second, third, and fourth original Planet of the Apes movies and received the story-by credit on the fifth. He wrote the libretto for William Walton's opera The Bear and two by Lennox Berkeley; A Dinner Engagement and Castaway.

His last screenplay was for Sidney Lumet's all-star Murder on the Orient Express (1974), based on the Agatha Christie whodunit, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Dehn resurrected or reinvented at least three genres given up for dead at the time; the British mystery, the Shakespeare adaptation, and the spy film.

Personal life Dehn was gay, and in a long-term relationship with his oft-collaborator James Bernard. Seven Days to Noon 1975 Best Adapted Screenplay Murder on the Orient Express

1959 Best Original Screenplay Orders to Kill 1968 Best Adapted Screenplay The Deadly Affair

1965 Best Foreign Film Goldfinger 1966

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 1977 Murder on the Orient Express Writers Guild of America 1966 Best Adapted Screenplay The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Writers' Guild of Great Britain 1975 Best British Screenplay Murder on the Orient Express