Edward Knoblock was an American-born British playwright and novelist most remembered for the often revived 1911 play, Kismet.
Biography
Knoblock was born in New York City of German parents and was the grandson of the Berlin architect Eduard Knoblauch. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1896, but he spent much of his professional life in Europe, first in France, then in Great Britain. In 1912, his Milestones, written with Arnold Bennett, became a hit at the Royalty Theatre, playing for over 600 performances. He became a British subject in 1916 during World War I, anglicized the spelling of his name, received a commission as a captain in the British Army and served in the Secret Service Bureau in the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Greece. In 1917 he bought and subsequently restored the RegencyBeach House, Worthing, Sussex. Knoblock was a lifelong collector of Regency style furniture and furnishings and kept much of the celebrated Thomas Hope collection intact. His London bachelor apartment was at The Albany. He was the subject of one of the most repeated stories involving the gaffe-prone actor John Gielgud, which, pressed by Emlyn Williams, Gielgud confessed was true. While Knoblock and Gielgud were dining one day at The Ivya man passed their table, and Gielgud said, "Thank God he didn't stop, he's a bigger bore than Eddie Knoblock – oh, not you, Eddie!" Williams asked how Knoblock reacted, and Gielgud replied, "He just looked slightly puzzled, and went on boring." Knoblock wrote many screenplays, perhaps the best known being Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood, though he was uncredited, and The Three Musketeers. Plays written by Knoblock alone include The Shulamite, The Faun, Kismet, My Lady's Dress, Marie-Odile, Tiger! Tiger!, and Grand Hotel. Among his novels are The Ant Heap, The Man With Two Mirrors, The Love Lady, and Inexperience. Knoblock often worked with a collaborator. His plays Milestones, and London Life were co-written with Arnold Bennett. His play Speakeasy, written with George Rosener, became a 1929 film of the same name. Similarly, The Good Companions, originally published in 1929 by J. B. Priestley, was dramatized jointly by Knoblock and the author in 1931 under the same title.
Edward Knoblock died in July 1945 at the London home of his sister, Gertrude Knoblauch, a well-known sculptor.
