Biography
Evan Jones (29 December 1927 – 18 April 2023) was a Jamaican screenwriter, playwright, poet and novelist. Born in Hector's River, Portland, Jamaica, he was educated at Munro College in Jamaica, Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated with a BA in English literature in 1952.
Jones wrote the screenplay for Wake in Fright (1971), directed by Ted Kotcheff and nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. His other screenplays include The Damned (1962), King and Country (1964), Modesty Blaise (1966), Funeral in Berlin (1966), Escape to Victory (1981) and Champions (1984). He created and presented the BBC series The Fight Against Slavery (1975), for which he received the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, and wrote the television play Madhouse on Castle Street (1963), which featured Bob Dylan's acting debut. His archive is held by the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
