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2 unusual facts about Joe Orton


Maxwell's Silver Hammer

On 9 August 1967 Kenneth Halliwell killed his lover Joe Orton with nine hammer blows to the head, and then overdosed on sleeping pills.

Ted Bessell

He also co-produced with his brother, writer-director Frank Bessell, Joe Orton's Crimes of Passion, directed by Michael Kahn.


Bryden MacDonald

MacDonald is also a theatre director, most noted for his productions of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw and Judith Thompson's Perfect Pie.

Mark Greenstreet

First and foremost a stage actor, Greenstreet played many of the great leading roles from the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen to Orton, Wilde and Coward in the UK and around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

Plain Clothes Theatre Productions

Their work has included plays by Joe Orton, Laura Wade and David Mamet, and their style is based around the teachings of American acting coach Sanford Meisner.

Prick Up Your Ears

Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell.

Simon Bent

Simon Bent is a British screenwriter and playwright, notable for work including BBC TV drama Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (2006), the screenplay for the feature film Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (2000), and the Joe Orton biographical play Prick Up Your Ears based on John Lahr's book.


see also