Biography

Evan Jones (29 December 1927 – 18 April 2023) was an influential Jamaican playwright, poet and novelist. He is best known for his screenplay for Wake in Fright (1971), a Palme d'Or nominated, 2009 Cannes Classic championed by Martin Scorsese; it is one of only two films to ever be screened twice at the festival. Jones was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for The Fight Against Slavery (1975), a limited series created and presented by him for the BBC. He is also the writer of Madhouse on Castle Street (1963), a television play which featured the acting début of Bob Dylan. Over the course of his career, Jones collaborated with a number of notable figures of twentieth century cinema, including Harold Pinter, John Huston, Michael Caine, Dirk Bogarde, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Sylvester Stallone and Max von Sydow.