Biography
Richard John Briley (1925–2019) was an American screenwriter. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he studied at the University of Michigan, earning a BA and MA, and later a PhD in Elizabethan drama from the University of Birmingham. He served in the US Army Air Forces and worked in public relations before becoming a staff writer at MGM-British in the early 1960s.
Briley specialised in biographical screenplays. He wrote the screenplay for Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough, which won him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. His other credits include Cry Freedom (1987), also with Attenborough, The Medusa Touch (1978), Children of the Damned (1964), Enigma (1982) and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992). He also wrote for television and theatre, and published novels.
Briley died in Sarasota, Florida, aged 94.
