Biography
William Rose was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, USA, and travelled to Canada at the outbreak of World War II, while the US was still neutral, in order to join up and fight the Nazis. This took him to Britain, where he decided to stay after the war. He spent his demobilisation money on a course in screenwriting, and then became a writer of British and American comedies such as Ladykillers, Genevieve, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, as wel...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Dhamaal
2007
Original Story
Four friends meet an underworld don who, on his deathbed, clues them in on hidden treasure buried in Goa. The group race towards Goa, not knowing that...

Rat Race
2001
Original Story
In an ensemble film about easy money, greed, manipulation and bad driving, a Las Vegas casino tycoon entertains his wealthiest high rollers -- a group...

Made In Ealing: The Story of Ealing Studios
1986
as Interviewee
Documentary about the British film studio. First appeared on the BBC television programme Omnibus.

Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks
1974
Screenplay
Mad Dr Frankenstein recruits an evil dwarf, a Neanderthal man, and others to help him put a brain in the body of a brute.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria
1970
Screenplay
During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967
Writer
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.

The Flim-Flam Man
1967
Screenplay
Mordecai Jones, a silver-tongued swindler and self-proclaimed “M.B.S., C.S., D.D.—Master of Back-Stabbing, Cork-Screwing and Double-Dealing,” has made...

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!
1966
Screenplay
When a Soviet submarine gets stuck on a sandbar off the coast of a New England island, its commander orders his second-in-command, Lieutenant Rozanov,...
Island Splendor
1966
Writer

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963
Screenplay, Story
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is t...

Davy
1958
Screenplay
The Mad Morgans are a family song and dance act touring the British Music Halls. Young Davy is the star of the act but should he stay with his family ...

The Smallest Show on Earth
1957
Screenplay
Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died a...

The Man in the Sky
1957
Screenplay, Story
The efforts of test pilot John Mitchell to make a better life for his wife Mary and their two children seem doomed to failure and he blames himself. A...

The Ladykillers
1955
Screenplay, Story
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicia...

Touch and Go
1955
Screenplay
When Jim Fletcher is told by his firm that his new furniture designs are not in keeping with the firm's image he threatens to resign, and decides to u...

The 'Maggie'
1954
Screenplay
The poor, elderly—and the wily, when it comes to parting those who can afford it from their money—Scottish skipper of a broken-down old 'puffer' boat ...

Genevieve
1953
Story, Screenplay
Two friends driving in the London to Brighton vintage car rally bet on which of them will be the first to arrive back home.

Gift Horse
1952
Adaptation
Compton Bennett's war drama The Gift Horse follows the fortunes of ageing destroyer The Ballantrae and her crew from the time they come together in 19...

Song of Paris
1952
Story
An archetypal Englishman returns from a jaunt abroad to face a dastardly foreign count in a screwball duel for the hand of a beautiful mademoiselle.

I'll Get You for This
1951
Screenplay
Nick, an American gambler, arrives in San Paolo and falls in love with Colleen, an American tourist, after she loses all of her money at the casino. N...

My Daughter Joy
1950
Screenplay
A financier plots to become the richest man in the world by marrying off his daughter to the son of an Arab sheik.

Once a Jolly Swagman
1949
Screenplay
A factory worker quits his job to become a motorcycle racer.

Esther Waters
1948
Screenplay
Esther goes into service in Victorian England, only to be seduced by the sweet talking groom William, who then takes off with his employer's daughter....