AUTHOR Neil Paterson, who won an Oscar for writing The Room at the Top
screenplay in 1960, has died at a Crieff nursing home after a long
illness. He was 79.
Despite his literary and film achievements, he still considered his
season as captain of Dundee United FC to be his greatest success.
The son of a solicitor, he was born in Greenock and grew up in Banff
before attending Edinburgh University, with the original intention of
following in his father's footsteps.
However, he left to pursue a career in journalism after gaining an MA
and, unable to get a job as a sports reporter, he became a sub-editor
with Thomson-Leng's magazine division in Dundee.
While there, he began to write short stories -- an interest that was
to continue after the Second World War and lead to his connection with
the movie industry.
Mr Paterson married in 1939 and served in the Navy as a lieutenant for
six years, narrowly avoiding death when his ship, the Venessa, was
bombed by the Luftwaffe.
At the end of the war he returned to Scotland and penned his first
novel, The China Run, which helped him win the Atlantic Award for
Literature. His next novel, Behold Thy Daughter, became an international
best-seller and was followed in the 1950s by And Delilah and Man on a
Tight Rope.
His story The Kidnappers published in 1957, was made into a film with
Duncan Macrae and was recently revived with Charlton Heston in the lead
role.
Despite spending time working in Hollywood with screen legends like
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, Mr Paterson was never tempted to move
from his Crieff home.
In later years, he became involved with the development of film and
the arts and was on the founding boards of Grampian Television and the
National Film School. He was Governor of British Film Institute and on
the boards of Scottish Arts Council, the Arts Council for Great Britain,
and Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
However, it was the 1936-37 football season with Dundee United, when
he became the first amateur in Britain to captain a professional side,
that he remembered most fondly.
Mr Paterson is survived by his wife, Rose, and children, Lynn, Kerr,
and John.
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