Peter Rogers

Peter Rogers was born in Rochester, Kent, on 20th February 1914. Educated at Kings School, Rochester, he began his career as a journalist on the "Kentish Express". Moving to the theatre in the late 1930s, he became Auriol Lee's assistant on such classic West End productions as J.B. Priestley's "People at Sea" and John Van Druten's "Gertie Maud". From the West End, he went to Fleet Street where he worked on "Picture Post". After hospitalisation during the war, Peter became a radio scriptwriter for the BBC. He entered the film industry as a scriptwriter in 1942 and was a member of the production executive committee of J. Arthur Rank's Religious Films Ltd. In 1946, he joined the Rank-controlled Gainsborough Studios, in Shepherds Bush, as an assistant scenario editor. At Gainsborough, he first met his future wife, Betty E. Box, O.B.E., herself one of Britain's most successful producers. Among the early films they co-produced were Marry Me (1949) and Don't Ever Leave Me (1949). Rank consoli