Bennett, Alan (1934-…), is a British playwright, actor, and director. He is best known in the United Kingdom for his witty, satirical observation of ordinary people in television comedies and a series of six monologues called Talking Heads (1988). Bennett wrote several acclaimed dramas, including Forty Years On (1968), Getting On (1971), Habeas Corpus (1973), The Old Country (1977), Enjoy (1980), Kafka’s Dick and The Insurance Man (both 1987), The Madness of George III (1991), The History Boys (2004), and The Habit of Art (2009).
Bennett was born on May 9, 1934, in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He established himself as a writer and actor in Beyond the Fringe, an Edinburgh International Festival revue in 1960. The satirical revue became an international hit during the early 1960’s. It also launched the careers of the show’s co-stars, Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore. Bennett wrote the autobiographical Writing Home (1994). He also wrote the screenplays for the motion pictures Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and The Madness of King George (1994, the adaptation of his 1991 play). A collection of three stories was published as The Laying on of Hands (2002). He also wrote a short novel, The Uncommon Reader (2007). A large number of his nonfiction pieces were collected in Untold Stories (2006).
