Val Guest(1911-2006)
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Val Guest began his career as an actor on the British stage and in
early sound films. He ran the one-man London office of "The Hollywood
Reporter" until an encounter with director Marcel Varnel led to a screen
writing job at Gainsborough Studios. Guest's directing career began in
the early 1940s with a Ministry of Information short about the perils
of sneezing (!), an inauspicious start to a lengthy roster of films
that includes the science-fiction classics The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Quatermass 2 (1957), The Abominable Snowman (1957)
and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). He was married to the actress Yolande Donlan from 1954 until his
death in 2006, aged 94.