Roland Pertwee was born May 17, 1885 in Brighton, Sussex. He began his career as an actor before joining the British Army in the First World War, and wrote his first novel while recovering from wounds in a London hospital. Retiring from the Army, Pertwee pursued a career in the British film industry, finding steady employment from the 1910s to the '50s writing plays, film scripts, serial novels and short stories. His most successful play, written with Harold Dearden, was "Interference," which was not only a hit in England but on Broadway. He was the father of both Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee. He died in London, England, in 1963 at age 77.