Knott, J. F.

Frederick Major Paull Knott (28 August 1916 – 17 December 2002) was an English playwright and screenwriter known for complex crime-related plots. Although he was a reluctant writer and completed a small number of plays, two have become well-known: the London-based stage thriller Dial M for Murder, later filmed in Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock, and the 1966 play Wait Until Dark, which was adapted to a Hollywood film directed by Terence Young. He also wrote the Broadway mystery Write Me a Murder. Knott moved to the United States in September 1952. He was introduced to actress Ann Hillary a few months later, married her in 1953, and the couple lived in New York for many years. Their only son, Anthony Frederick Knott, was born in 1959.