Biography
Alec Coppel (1907–1972) was an Australian screenwriter, novelist and playwright. Born in Melbourne, he attended Wesley College before studying medicine at Cambridge University, which he left without graduating. He worked in advertising and began writing plays in his spare time.
Coppel achieved early success with the West End hit I Killed the Count (1937). He later wrote screenplays including Obsession (1949), Mr. Denning Drives North (1951) and No Highway in the Sky (1951). In 1953 he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story for The Captain's Paradise, becoming the first Australian nominated in a screenwriting category. He moved to Hollywood in 1954 and co-wrote the screenplay for Vertigo (1958) with Samuel A. Taylor.
Other credits include contributions to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and the play The Gazebo, later adapted for film. Coppel died in London on 22 January 1972.
