Background
John Kruse was born in England and educated at Harrow. His father, Jack Frederick Conrad Kruse, was a captain in the Royal Navy and close associate of tycoon Lord Rothermere, founder of the Daily Mail.
director novelist screenwriter
John Kruse was born in England and educated at Harrow. His father, Jack Frederick Conrad Kruse, was a captain in the Royal Navy and close associate of tycoon Lord Rothermere, founder of the Daily Mail.
He is mostly remembered for his work on International Trade Commission classic television series, as well as several films of the franchise, and as the author of the best-selling novel Red Omega. A wealthy couple, Kruse"s parents lived between London and the French Riviera, but the 1929 Crash greatly damaged their fortune. During World War Two, John served as a liaison officer in India, the Middle East and Italy.
He joined Pinewood Film Studios as a clapper boy and, during the next seven years, progressed to become cameraman, at the same time working nights to perfect his writing.
His short stories began to appear in magazines in Britain and the United States in the early fifties. Some of these stories were later developed into screenplays. was his first credited film, based on his own short story and co-scripted with director Cy Endfield.
By 1954 Kruse had switched to full-time scriptwriting, working in over a dozen of films. Starting in the 60"s, he also wrote many hundreds of episodes for British and international television shows, including,,,, and most famously, starring Roger Moore.
In 1981, Kruse abandoned screenwriting and moved to Almuñécar, in Málaga, Spain, where he began a new career as a novelist.
He published three novels. The first one,, became a best-seller—a cold war spy thriller involving a Central Intelligence Agency plot to murder Stalin using a rogue agent from Extremadura who survived the gulags. lieutenant was later followed by a sequel,, and Hour of the Lily, an epic story of love and war in Russian-occupied Afghanistan.
After these three novels, Kruse took up painting.
He died in Almuñécar in 2004.
(372 pages of excellent text. Second printing.)