A. Havelock-Allan, 98; British Screenwriter Produced Movie Classics

Anthony Havelock-Allan, 98, a veteran of the golden age of British cinema, who produced and co-wrote such 1940s classics as “Brief Encounter” and “Great Expectations,” died of heart failure Jan. 11 in London.

Born in Darlington, England, to a military family, he managed recording artists for Brunswick Gramophone Co. in his first career. By 1933, he was working in the British film industry as a casting director.

He later produced 24 “quota quickies” for Paramount -- low-budget films made to take advantage of government policies requiring theaters to show a certain percentage of British-made movies.

Havelock-Allan also made a number of well-regarded propaganda films in the 1940s, including working with Noel Coward and David Lean on “In Which We Serve” in 1942.

In 1943, he founded the production company Cineguild, which produced “Brief Encounter,” the tear-jerker based on the Coward play; and “Great Expectations,” an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. He earned Oscar nominations for screenwriting on both films, which were released in 1946.

He was co-producer of the Franco Zeffirelli-directed “Romeo and Juliet” in 1968, which was nominated for Best Picture and won Oscars for cinematography and costume design. He also produced “Ryan’s Daughter,” the World War I love story directed by Lean and starring Robert Mitchum.

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Charles Cherniss, a former editor and columnist for the Pasadena Star News, died Thursday at his Pasadena home. He was 75.