Biography
Van Druten was born in London in 1901, son of a Dutch father, Wilhelmus van Druten and his English wife Eva. He was educated at University College School and read Law at the University of London. Before commencing his career as a writer he practised law for a while as a solicitor and university lecturer in Wales.
He first came to prominence with Young Woodley, a slight but charming study of adolescence, which was produced in New York in 1925, but was banned in London by the Lord Chamberlain's office. In England, it was first produced privately (by Phyllis Whitworth's Three Hundred Club) and then at the Arts Theatre in 1928. When the ban was lifted, it had a successful run at the Savoy Theatre in the West End with a cast including Frank Lawton, Derrick De Marney and Jack Hawkins. The play was filmed twice. It was revived at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2006.
He was one of the most successful playwrights of the early 1930s in London with star-studded West End productions of his work including Diversion (1928), After All (1929), London Wall (1931) with Frank Lawton and John Mills, There's Always Juliet (1931), Somebody Knows (1932), Behold, We Live (1932) with Gertrude Lawrence and Gerald du Maurier, The Distaff Side (1933) and Flowers of the Forest (1934).
He later emigrated to America where he wrote Leave Her to Heaven (February 1940), a drama set in London and Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, which was shortly followed by major successes with Old Acquaintance (NY December 1940-May 1941) and The Voice of the Turtle (1943), which ran for three seasons in New York and was filmed with Ronald Reagan. In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
His 1951 play I Am a Camera, together with Christopher Isherwood's short stories, Goodbye to Berlin (1939), formed the basis of Joe Masteroff's book for the Kander and Ebb musical, Cabaret (1966).
He died at Indio, California, on 19 December 1957. He is buried in the Coachella Valley Public Cemetery.
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