Bill Douglas

Bill Douglas was born in 1934 in Newcraighall on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He undertook his National Service in Egypt and, upon return to the UK, moved to London and began his acting and writing career. After spending some time at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, he was cast in the Granada television series The Younger Generation in 1961. In 1968 he enrolled at the London International Film School, where he wrote the screenplay for My Childhood (1972), which gained critical acclaim on the international festival circuit, and paved the way for the second and third instalments of what became a trilogy of his formative years: My Ain Folk (1973) and My Way Home (1978). Comrades (1987) was to be Bill Douglas’s last film. He died of cancer on the 18 June 1991.