C. S. Forester

Writer

August 27, 1899 (66 years)

† April 2, 1966

Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt [now Egypt]

Biography

Cecil Scott "C.S." Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 — 2 April 1966), an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Description ab…

Filmography

7.8

Hornblower

Set during the 18th century Napoleonic Wars, Horatio Hornblower, a young and shy midshipman, rises through the ranks to become an admiral.

7.4

Greyhound

A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the "Black Pit" to the front lines of WWII. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.

7.4

The African Queen

At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

6.9

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

Captain Horatio Hornblower leads his ship HMS Lydia on a perilous transatlantic voyage, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.

6.9

Sink the Bismarck!

The story of the breakout of the German battleship Bismarck—accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—during the early days of World War II. The Bismarck and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were the most powerful battleships in the European theater of World War II. The British Navy must find and destroy Bismarck before it can escape into the convoy lanes to inflict severe damage on the cargo shipping which was the lifeblood of the British Isles. With eight 15 inch guns, it was capable of destroying every ship in a convoy while remaining beyond the range of all Royal Navy warships.

7.5

Forever and a Day

In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family house. The current tenant, Leslie Trimble, tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him the 140-year history of the place and the connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families.

6.0

The Pride and the Passion

During the Napoleonic Wars, when the French have occupied Spain, some Spanish guerrilla soldiers are going to move a big cannon across Spain in order to help the British defeat the French. A British officer is there to accompany the Spanish and along the way, he falls in love with the leader's girl.

7.5

Hornblower: The Even Chance

Portsmouth, 1794. Under thundery skies and in lashing rain, 17-year-old midshipman Horatio Hornblower takes the first tentative steps of his naval career, but a feud with a shipmate causes complications.

6.3

Brown on Resolution

Forever England gives John Mills his first leading role as Brown. Born after a brief affair between his mother and a naval officer, he joins the Royal Navy during the First World War. There his bravery and marksmanship keeps a German ship in port so a British ship can sink it. He becomes a hero, but at what cost?

7.2

Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil

Acting Lieutenant Hornblower and his crew are captured by the enemy while escorting a Duchess who has secrets of her own.

7.0

Sailor of the King

A British naval officer has a brief affair with a woman in England and never knows that she bears him a son. 20 years later the boy is on a ship under his command when he is tracking a German Raider. When the boy is captured after his ship is sunk, he finds a way to slow the German's progress while a lethal hunt for him goes on.

7.4

Hornblower: Mutiny

Hornblower and his comrades come under the command of a revered but mentally unstable captain and are forced to mutiny in order to save their ship, the HMS Renown.

7.3

Hornblower: Duty

Admiral Pellew interrupts Hornblower's wedding reception and tasks him to locate a British ship which has disappeared off the French coast, where Napoleon's troops are engaged in covert activities.

7.2

Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters

Lieutenant Hornblower and his shipmates are sent to accompany a doomed royalist invasion of revolutionary France.

7.0

Eagle Squadron

An American joins the British Royal Air Force just before Pearl Harbor is attacked, and falls in love with a beautiful English girl.

7.2

Hornblower: Loyalty

Hornblower must deliver a French nobleman to a secret rendezvous near Brest, all while coping with enemy agents in his own ranks.

7.4

Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant

Acting Lieutenant Hornblower attempts to study for his promotion examination, but becomes distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew.

7.3

Hornblower: Retribution

Hornblower and the other officers of the Renown must return to Jamaica to face a court-martial and possible execution for their actions in relieving their unstable captain.

5.5

Commandos Strike at Dawn

A gentle widower with a small daughter finds his peaceful small rural village suddenly invaded by Nazis and, enraged in short order by their atrocities, becomes the leader of an aggressive underground movement.

6.7

The African Queen

After the events of The African Queen (1951), Charlie and Rose are recaptured by the Germans and forced to tug one of their big cannons that could bring the Nazis victory against the local Allied forces.