 In 1956, at the age of 29, he played a prison officer in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop production of Brendan Behan's "The Quare Fellow".In 1959, he married actress Norma Ronald and, by the early 1960s, was supplementing his acting career with scriptwriting.Following a 1966 divorce, his 1969 marriage to Mary McPhail lasted for the remainder of his life and produced two daughters.