Raymond George Alfred Cooney, OBE (born 30 May 1932) is an English playwright and actor. His biggest success, Run For Your Wife, lasted nine years in London's West End and is its longest-running comedy.1 He has had 17 of his plays performed there.2 BiographyCooney began acting in 1946, and appeared in many of the Whitehall farces of Brian Rix throughout the fifties and sixties. It was during this time that he co-wrote his first play One For The Pot. Cooney co-wrote a farce with his son Michael, Tom, Dick and Harry. Cooney's farces combine a traditional British bawdiness with structural complication, as characters leap to assumptions, are forced to pretend to be things that they aren't, and often talk at cross-purposes to hilarious effect. In 1983, Cooney created the Theatre of Comedy Company and became its artistic director. During his tenure it produced over twenty plays such as Pygmalion starring Peter O'Toole and John Thaw, Loot, and Run For Your Wife. Cooney has also appeared on TV and in several movies, including a movie adaptation of Not Now Darling, which he co-wrote with John Chapman. In 2005, Cooney was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama.3 Personal lifeCooney's son Michael is a screenwriter and wrote the original screenplay for the film Identity starring John Cusack. Bibliography
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