Rex Rienits


Rex Rienits was an Australian writer of radio, films, plays and TV. He was a journalist before becoming one of the leading radio writers in Australia. He moved to England in 1949 and worked for a number of years there. He later returned to Australia and worked on early local TV drama.

Biography

Rienits worked as a journalist and boxing promoter in Wagga Wagga. He moved to Sydney, where he continued to work as a journalist but also wrote for radio.
In 1939 he helped form the Playwright's Advisory Board. In the mid-1940s he was hired by Henry Watt of Ealing Studios to prepare a research document on the Eureka Rebellion which formed the basis of the 1948 film Eureka Stockade. He moved to England in 1949 and wrote scripts for radio, film and TV. His big breakthrough was a popular radio adaptation of Robbery Under Arms.
The success of a script Assassin for Hire led to offers to do three more scripts starting with Wide Boy. In December 1951 he was reportedly one of the highest paid freelancers in Britain.
Rienits returned to Australia in late 1954.
He later returned to London, where he died of a heart attack in 1971.

Personal life

His first marriage ended in divorce in 1932. His second wife Josephine died in 1954.

Selected writings

Radio