# Ivan Moffat

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{{Short description|British screenwriter (1918–2002)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}
'''Ivan Romilly Moffat''' (18 February 1918 – 4 July 2002) was a British screenwriter, film producer and socialite who, with [Fred Guiol](/source/Fred_Guiol), was nominated for an [Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay](/source/Academy_Award_for_Best_Adapted_Screenplay) for adapting [Edna Ferber](/source/Edna_Ferber)'s eponymous novel into the film ''[Giant](/source/Giant_(1956_film))'' (1956).  Moffat was the grandson of actor-manager [Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree](/source/Herbert_Beerbohm_Tree).

After studying at the [London School of Economics](/source/London_School_of_Economics), Moffat became a socialite and began to make films to promote the war effort.  During World War II he filmed activities of the US Army, meeting director [George Stevens](/source/George_Stevens), whom he soon followed to Hollywood and assisted at [Paramount Pictures](/source/Paramount_Pictures).  In the 1950s, between his two marriages, Moffat had a string of love affairs, notably with [Elizabeth Taylor](/source/Elizabeth_Taylor) and [Lady Caroline Blackwood](/source/Lady_Caroline_Blackwood).  Beginning in 1956 he wrote or co-wrote screenplays for a number of well-known films, in addition to ''Giant'', and in the 1970s wrote for television.

==Early life==
Ivan Moffat was born in [Havana](/source/Havana), Cuba, the son of the British actress and poet [Iris Tree](/source/Iris_Tree) and her American husband, artist and photographer [Curtis Moffat](/source/Curtis_Moffat).<ref>[http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/people-pages/curtis-moffat-biography/ Curtis Moffat: biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019071217/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/people-pages/curtis-moffat-biography/ |date=19 October 2012 }} on the [Victoria & Albert Museum](/source/Victoria_%26_Albert_Museum) website</ref> He was the grandson of actor-manager [Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree](/source/Herbert_Beerbohm_Tree).<ref name=tele>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1403420/Ivan-Moffat.html "Ivan Moffat"], obituary in ''[The Telegraph](/source/The_Daily_Telegraph)'', 3 August 2002, accessed 18 April 2012</ref><ref>[http://genealogy.clanmoffat.org/getperson.php?personID=I11293&tree=UKEire Ivan Moffat on the 'Genealogy of the Moffat Family' website]</ref> The family lived, among other places, in America and Australia, and moved to London when Moffat was 8 years old.  There, Moffat attended [Dartington Hall School](/source/Dartington_Hall_School), in [Totnes](/source/Totnes), Devon, befriending [Michael Young](/source/Michael_Young%2C_Baron_Young_of_Dartington). Moffat then studied at the [London School of Economics](/source/London_School_of_Economics). As an undergraduate, he joined the [Communist Party](/source/Communist_Party), which caused him later to be blacklisted for a time in Hollywood.  [Jessica Mitford](/source/Jessica_Mitford) once described Moffat as "spanning the gap between Left-wing politics and the [deb](/source/debutant) dance scene".<ref name=tele/>

By 1938, after his father moved back to America, Moffat joined the [Gargoyle Club](/source/Gargoyle_Club) in [Soho](/source/Soho), hosting frequent parties in his father's famously decorated house, meeting [Philip Toynbee](/source/Philip_Toynbee) and [Dylan Thomas](/source/Dylan_Thomas) and working for Strand Films, where he helped to make documentaries for the government to promote the war effort.<ref name=tele/> In 1943, after America entered World War II, Moffat enlisted in the US Army, serving as a writer in the [Signal Corps](/source/Signal_Corps_(United_States_Army)), a special unit known as the "Hollywood Irregulars".  There, he served for the first time under the director [George Stevens](/source/George_Stevens) as a writer and assistant director. After filming and photographing allied forces in [D-Day](/source/D-Day) landings and at the [Battle of the Bulge](/source/Battle_of_the_Bulge), among other events, the unit filmed the [liberation of Paris](/source/liberation_of_Paris) and of [Dachau concentration camp](/source/Dachau_concentration_camp).<ref name=tele/><ref name=Guardian>Bergan, Ronald. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/22/guardianobituaries.filmnews "Ivan Moffat"], obituary in ''[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)'', 22 July 2002, accessed 18 April 2012</ref>

==Film and television==
After the war, Moffat settled in Hollywood, joining Stevens as an assistant producer at [Liberty Films](/source/Liberty_Films), which was soon purchased by [Paramount Pictures](/source/Paramount_Pictures).<ref name=tele/><ref name=Guardian/> There he assisted Stevens on such movies as ''[I Remember Mama](/source/I_Remember_Mama_(film))'' (1948), ''[Shane](/source/Shane_(film))'' (1951) and ''[A Place in the Sun](/source/A_Place_in_the_Sun_(1951_film))'' (1951).<ref name=tele/> In 1956, Moffat worked on the screenplays for ''[Bhowani Junction](/source/Bhowani_Junction_(film))'', ''[D-Day the Sixth of June](/source/D-Day_the_Sixth_of_June)'' and ''[Giant](/source/Giant_(1956_film))''. The screenplay for ''Giant'' brought Moffat and co-writer [Fred Guiol](/source/Fred_Guiol) an Oscar nomination.<ref name=tele/><ref>{{Cite web |title=American Legends Interviews..... James Dean - Giant |url=https://www.americanlegends.com/Interviews/dean_moffat.htm |access-date=2026-05-31 |website=www.americanlegends.com}}</ref>

Among other screenplays that Moffat wrote or co-wrote were ''[The Wayward Bus](/source/The_Wayward_Bus_(film))'' and ''[Boy on a Dolphin](/source/Boy_on_a_Dolphin)'' (both 1957), ''[They Came to Cordura](/source/They_Came_to_Cordura)'' (1959), ''[Tender Is the Night](/source/Tender_Is_the_Night_(1962_film))'' (1962), ''[The Heroes of Telemark](/source/The_Heroes_of_Telemark)'' and ''[The Greatest Story Ever Told](/source/The_Greatest_Story_Ever_Told)'' (both 1965), and ''[Black Sunday](/source/Black_Sunday_(1977_film))'' (1977), as well as revising the screenplay for ''[The Great Escape](/source/The_Great_Escape_(film))'' (1963) and ''[The Chase](/source/The_Chase_(1966_film))'' (1966).<ref name=tele/><ref name=Guardian/>

In the 1970s, Moffat wrote episodes of the television series ''[Colditz](/source/Colditz_(1972_TV_series))'',<ref name=Guardian/> and in 1985 he wrote the story and co-wrote the script for the television film ''Florence Nightingale'', which starred [Jaclyn Smith](/source/Jaclyn_Smith).<ref name=tele/> Moffat is interviewed extensively in the documentary ''George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey'' (1985) and on the DVDs of ''Shane'' and ''Giant''.<ref name=Guardian/>

==Personal life==
Moffat became friends with [Simone de Beauvoir](/source/Simone_de_Beauvoir) and [Jean-Paul Sartre](/source/Jean-Paul_Sartre) in Paris, marrying their protege Natasha Sorokin at the end of World War II, with whom he had one daughter, Lorna Moffat. The marriage soon collapsed.  Moffat had a string of affairs with women in the 1950s.<ref name=Guardian/> Moffat's friend [Christopher Isherwood](/source/Christopher_Isherwood) wrote in his diary that Moffat "is always so pretty and bright eyed and clean – he has to be for I imagine his evenings usually end, if they don't begin, visiting some girl".<ref name=tele/> In 1956 he began a long on again, off again affair with then-married [Lady Caroline Blackwood](/source/Lady_Caroline_Blackwood), fathering her daughter Ivana Lowell in 1966, after he was remarried.<ref name=tele/><ref>Gaines, Steven. [http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/68322/ "Ivana Lowell, Sober Guinness Heiress Raised by Poet, Says What Happened"].  ''New York'' magazine, 19 September 2010</ref><ref>{{cite news|first1=Emine|last1=Saner|accessdate=2020-01-10|title=Ivana Lowell: So, who was my father?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/04/ivana-lowell-father-memoir|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 December 2010|issn=0261-3077|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> He had a brief affair with [Elizabeth Taylor](/source/Elizabeth_Taylor) during the filming of ''A Place in the Sun''.<ref name=Guardian/>

In 1961, Moffat married The Hon. Katharine Smith, the daughter of the Rt. Hon. [William Henry Smith](/source/William_Smith%2C_3rd_Viscount_Hambleden), 3rd Viscount Hambleden (a descendant of the founder of [W H Smith](/source/W_H_Smith)) and his wife [Patricia](/source/Patricia_Smith%2C_Viscountess_Hambleden) (daughter of the [15th Earl of Pembroke](/source/Reginald_Herbert%2C_15th_Earl_of_Pembroke)).{{citation needed|date=July 2025}} Through the Pembroke family, Katharine descended from Countess [Catherine Vorontsov](/source/Catherine_Vorontsov).<ref name=Vorontsov>[http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Herbert/woronzow.html Woronzow], HumphrysFamilyTree, accessed 4 April 2012. Her father, Count [Semyon Vorontsov](/source/Semyon_Vorontsov), the Russian ambassador to Britain, brought the family to London in 1785.</ref> During the marriage, the couple moved back to London when Moffat was hired to "doctor" the screenplay for ''The Great Escape'' (1963), and partly so his wife could fulfil her responsibilities as lady-in-waiting to the [Queen Mother](/source/Queen_Elizabeth_The_Queen_Mother).{{citation needed|date=July 2025}} With Katharine, he had two sons.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

Moffat died on 4 July 2002, aged 84, in Los Angeles, California.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

==See also==
*[Beerbohm family](/source/Beerbohm_family)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|595573}}
*[http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/person.jsp?id=26534 Moffat] on [Channel 4 Film](/source/Channel_4)
*[http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho3/moffat_i.htm Moffat on The Oscar Site]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moffat, Ivan}}
Category:1918 births
Category:2002 deaths
Category:Beerbohm family
Category:English male screenwriters
Category:English film producers
Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics
Category:People educated at Dartington Hall School
Category:20th-century English screenwriters
Category:20th-century English male writers
Category:20th-century English businesspeople

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ivan Moffat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Moffat) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Moffat?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.