Biography
Alan Dent was a Scottish journalist, editor and writer. Born on 7 January 1905 in Maybole, Ayrshire, he was educated at Carrick Academy and Glasgow University before moving to London in 1926. He served as secretary to the critic James Agate for fourteen years and later worked as a drama critic for the Manchester Guardian and the News Chronicle, and as film critic for the Illustrated London News.
During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy. Dent acted as text editor and advisor to Laurence Olivier on his Shakespeare films Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). He also edited the correspondence of Mrs Patrick Campbell and Bernard Shaw, and published several books on literary and theatrical subjects.
He died on 19 December 1978 at his home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
