James Hilton
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James Hilton (September 9, 1900 - December 20, 1954) was a popular English novelist of the first half of the 20th century.
Born in Leigh, Lancashire, England on 9 September 1900, he was the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow, who was the basis for Mr Chipping in Goodbye, Mr Chips. He went up to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1921.
Hilton found literary success at an early age. His first novel, Catherine Herself, was published in 1920. Several of his books found a new audience through film adaptations, notably Lost Horizon (1933), which won a Hawthornden Prize; Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934); and Random Harvest (1941). Hilton won an Oscar in 1942 for his work on the screenplay of Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. He hosted The Hallmark Playhouse (1948-1953) for CBS Radio.
Hilton popularised the term Shangri-La in his novel Lost Horizon. US President Roosevelt soon named his presidential retreat "Shangri-La" after it, and the name has become a byword for a mythical utopia -- a permanently happy land, isolated from the world.
Hilton was married and divorced twice, to Galina Kopineck and Alice Brown. He died in Long Beach, California from liver cancer on December 20, 1954, aged 54.
External links
Filmography at IMDB.com (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0385264/)de:James Hilton