Guest, Val

▪ 2007

Valmond Maurice Guest 

      British film director and screenwriter (b. Dec. 11, 1911, London, Eng.—d. May 10, 2006, Palm Desert, Calif.), was a highly versatile and prolific filmmaker, noted for an oeuvre that included musicals, comedies, thrillers, and period pieces, but he was perhaps best known for the science-fiction classics The Quatermass Xperiment (1955; U.S. title, The Creeping Unknown) and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961); the latter earned him (and co-writer Wolf Mankowitz) a BAFTA Award for best screenplay. Guest, who began his film career as an actor, penned more than 70 scripts, many of which he also directed.

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