{{short description|British playwright}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Ben Landeck''' (1864–1928) was a prolific British playwright, who wrote melodramas often in collaboration with Arthur Shirley. Several of his plays were made into early films.
== Early life == Landeck was born in London on 24 October 1846.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484538/bio|title=Ben Landeck|website=IMDb|access-date=28 March 2020|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055113/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484538/bio|url-status=live}}</ref>
== Career == Landeck wrote plays alone and in collaboration with other playwrights, in particular Arthur Shirley; their collaboration lasted from 1892 until 1923.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|title=Mr Ben Landeck|date=12 January 1928|work=The Stage|page=20}}</ref> One of his earliest successes was ''My Jack''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147280531 |title=On the Wing. |newspaper=Table Talk |issue=231 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 November 1889 |accessdate=24 July 2021 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055122/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/147280531 |url-status=live }}</ref> Plays written with Shirley include ''A King of Crime'',<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8683533 |title=Theatre Royal |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=14,985 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=9 July 1894 |accessdate=25 July 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055123/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8683533 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Saved from the Sea, Tommy Atkins, Jack Tar, A Lion's Heart, Women and Wine, The Women of France,'' and ''The Savage and the Woman.''<ref>{{Cite news|title=Obituary. Mr Arthur Shirley|date=27 August 1925|work=The Stage|page=17}}</ref> A number of the plays were made into movies between 1908 and 1928.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bb25bee32|title=Ben Landeck|website=British Film Institute|access-date=28 March 2020|archive-date=4 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304062620/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bb25bee32|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1898 ''Going the Pace'' by Landeck and Shirley was first performed in Wolverhampton and later London. The staging featured horses, foxhounds and a hansom cab.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wearing|first=J. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nF8pAgAAQBAJ&q=%22ben+landeck%22&pg=PA422|title=The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|date=21 November 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-9282-8|edition=2nd|pages=422–433|language=en|access-date=1 October 2020|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055114/https://books.google.com/books?id=nF8pAgAAQBAJ&q=%22ben+landeck%22&pg=PA422|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1923 the Lyceum Theatre in London produced the melodrama ''What Money can Buy'' by Landeck and Shirley.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wearing|first=J. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFEAwAAQBAJ&q=%22ben+landeck%22&pg=PA249|title=The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2014|isbn=978-0-8108-9302-3|edition=2nd|pages=249|language=en|access-date=1 October 2020|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055113/https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFEAwAAQBAJ&q=%22ben+landeck%22&pg=PA249|url-status=live}}</ref> Although it was described as a "drama of modern life" the plot owed its dramatic roots to nineteenth-century melodrama which was enhanced by being performed against a background of music.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nicoll|first=Allardyce|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vud3STjwsKsC&q=%22arthur+shirley%22+%28playwright+OR+writer%29+british+OR+english&pg=PA211|title=English Drama, 1900-1930: The Beginnings of the Modern Period|date=2009|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning|isbn=978-0-521-12947-3|edition=Digital|pages=211–212|language=en|access-date=1 October 2020|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055114/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vud3STjwsKsC&q=%22arthur+shirley%22+%28playwright+OR+writer%29+british+OR+english&pg=PA211|url-status=live}}</ref>
In a collaboration with Oswald Brand he wrote ''The Adventures of Dr Nikola'' which was performed in London in 1902.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lachman|first=Marvin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L16QBQAAQBAJ&q=%22ben+landeck%22&pg=PA39|title=The Villainous Stage: Crime Plays on Broadway and in the West End|publisher=McFarland|year=2014|isbn=978-0-7864-9534-4|location=Jefferson|pages=39|language=en|access-date=1 October 2020|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112055114/https://books.google.com/books?id=L16QBQAAQBAJ&q=%22ben+landeck%22&pg=PA39|url-status=live}}</ref>
== Personal life == In 1909 he married the actress Valerie Crespin, who died in April 1934.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|title=Miss Valerie Crespin|date=26 April 1934|work=The Stage|page=11}}</ref> Landeck died in London on 6 January 1928.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
== References == <references />
== External links == * [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/152/ Plays by Landeck and by Landeck and George Bellamy on Great War Theatre] * [https://www.kent.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/theatre/r.php/30690/show.html University of Kent. Theatre Collections]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landeck, Ben}} Category:1864 births Category:1928 deaths Category:20th-century British dramatists and playwrights Category:19th-century British dramatists and playwrights