Patrick Macnee was born in 1922 in London, England, into a wealthy and eccentric family. Macnee first appeared on stage and made his film debut as an extra in Pygmalion. After World War II, he resumed his stage and film career, with bit parts such as Young Jacob Marley in Scrooge. The role that brought him worldwide fame and popularity was the part of John Steed, in the classic British television series The Avengers. During the 1980s and 1990s, Macnee became a familiar face on American television in such series as Gavilan, Empire, Thunder in Paradise and Night Man. In the past decade, Macnee has also made several audio recordings of book fiction.
Biography
C. S. Forester (1899 - 1966) wrote several novels with military and naval themes, including The African Queen, The Barbary Pirates, The General, The Good Shepherd, The Gun, The Last Nine Days of the "Bismarck" and Rifleman Dodd. But Forester is best known as the creator of Horatio Hornblower, a British naval genius of the Napoleonic era, whose exploits and adventures on the high seas Forester chronicled in a series of eleven acclaimed historical novels. Over the years, Hornblower has proved to be one of the most beloved and enduring fictional heroes in English literature, his popularity rivaled only by Sherlock Holmes. Born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith in Cairo, Egypt, Forester grew up in London. At the start of World War II, he traveled on behalf of the British government to America, where he produced propaganda encouraging the United States to remain on Britain's side. After the War, Forester remained in America and made Berkeley, California, his home.
The character of Horatio Hornblower was born after Forester was called to Hollywood to write a pirate film. While the script was being drafted, another studio released Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, based on the same historical incidents about which Forester was writing. Rather than seek another movie project, and to avoid an impending paternity suit, Forester jumped aboard a freighter bound for England. By the end of the voyage he had outlined Beat to the Quarters, which introduced the now legendary character Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara.
Forester died in 1966 while working on Hornblower During the Crisis.
Author biography courtesy of Time Warner.
