Lawrence Edward Watkin was an American writer and producer, who worked on several live-action films for Disney during the 1950s.
Watkin was born in Camden, New York in 1901 and, at one time, was a professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia while writing his first novel, On Borrowed Time. It would adapted to stage, film, and television during his lifetime while winning the National Book Award in 1937. Other books he wrote included Geese in the Forum, Thomas Jones and His Nine Lives, Marty Markham, and Gentleman from England.
In 1947, following the release of Watkin's first screenplay, Keeper of the Bees, Walt Disney hired him to adapt the stories of Herminie Templeton Kavanagh's Darby O'Gill character. Though the project was finally realized in 1959 as Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Watkin had already written several screenplays for the company's early live-action efforts, such as Treasure Island, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, The Sword and the Rose, and The Great Locomotive Chase as well as contributing as a consultant to Mickey Mouse Club's "Spin and Marty" serials which were adapted from Marty Markham. He would also write for television shows, such as National Velvet, The Robert Taylor Show, and The Virginian.
He died in 1981, only seven days after his 80th birthday, in San Joaquin County, California.
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Treasure Island | Writer |
| In Beaver Valley | Writer | |
| 1952 | The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men | Screenplay Lyricist: "Come Sing Low, Come Sing High" |
| 1953 | The Sword and the Rose | Writer |
| Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue | Writer | |
| 1955-1957 | Spin and Marty | Consultant (uncredited) |
| 1956 | "Behind the Scenes with Fess Parker" | Producer |
| The Great Locomotive Chase | Producer Writer Lyricist: "Sons of Old Aunt Dinah" | |
| 1958 | The Light in the Forest | Writer |
| 1959 | "I Captured the King of the Leprechauns" | Co-Writer: Songs |
| Darby O'Gill and the Little People | Screenplay Lyricist: "The Wishing Song" "Pretty Irish Girl" | |
| 1960 | Ten Who Dared | Screenplay Lyricist: Songs |
| 1972 | The Biscuit Eater | Writer |
Trivia[]
- In the late 1960s, Watkin was hired by the Disney Studio to do a biography of Walt after the first effort by Richard G. Hubler was judged unsatisfactory. Watkin's effort was also deemed unsuitable.
