John Mortimer Legal career When did Mortimer start his legal career? Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. What firm did he work for? I don't know. What type of law did he practice? His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, Did that change later in his career? on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. What is "taking silk"? I don't know. Did he work on any major cases? Whitehouse v. Lemon When was this case? 1976,
Did he win the case?
Did John Mortimer win his major case?
Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."  He has sometimes been incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate. Mortimer did however successfully represent publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.  Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal. His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants' being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. CANNOTANSWER
Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.
Sir John Clifford Mortimer  (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole.

Early life
Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, the only child of Kathleen May (née Smith) and (Herbert) Clifford Mortimer (1884–1961), a divorce and probate barrister who became blind in 1936 when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family.

John Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Harrow School, where he joined the Communist Party, forming a one-member cell. He first intended to be an actor (his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II gained glowing reviews in The Draconian) and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it, advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife... [the law] gets you out of the house."

At 17, Mortimer went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was sent down from Oxford by John Lowe, Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield College sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC, were discovered by the young man's housemaster. But Mortimer was still allowed to take his Bachelor of Arts degree in law in October 1943. His close friend Michael Hamburger believed he had been very harshly treated.

Early writing career
With weak eyes and doubtful lungs, Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II. He worked for the Crown Film Unit under Laurie Lee, writing scripts for propaganda documentaries.

I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama.

He based his first novel, Charade, on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit.

Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955, adapting his own novel Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme. His debut as an original playwright came with The Dock Brief starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio's Third Programme, and later televised with the same cast. It later appeared in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre. The Dock Brief was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 for a touring double bill with Legal Fictions. It won the Prix Italia in 1957, and its success on radio, stage, and television led Mortimer to prefer writing for performance rather than writing novels.

Mortimer's play A Voyage Round My Father, first broadcast on radio in 1963, is autobiographical, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relations with his blind father. It was televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a lengthier version, the play became a stage success – first at Greenwich Theatre with Dignam, then in 1971 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Alec Guinness). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screenplay for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing, which also starred Olivier.

Legal career
Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career covered testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake criminal law. His highest profile came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."

He has sometimes been cited wrongly as one in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team. He did, however, successfully defend publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in an 1968 appeal against a conviction for publishing Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.

In 1971, Mortimer managed to defend the editors of the satirical paper Oz against a charge of "conspiracy to corrupt and debauch the morals of the young of the Realm", which might have carried a sentence of 12 years' hard labour. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) against charges of blasphemous libel for publishing James Kirkup's The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name; Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence, which was overturned on appeal. He successfully defended Virgin Records in a 1977 obscenity hearing for using the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and the manager of the Nottingham branch of Virgin record shop chain for displaying and selling the record. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984.

Later writing career
Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, inspired by his father Clifford, whose speciality is defending those accused in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor – in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim "but he turned out to be dead so he couldn't take it on" – Australian-born Leo McKern played Rumpole with gusto and proved popular. The idea was developed into a series, Rumpole of the Bailey, for Thames Television, in which McKern kept the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series with former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as protagonist.

In 1975 and 1976, Mortimer adapted eight of Graham Greene’s short stories for episodes of Shades of Greene presented by Thames Television. Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles's The Ebony Tower starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal.

Mortimer developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court. His work in total includes over 50 books, plays and scripts.  Besides 13 episodes of Rumpole dramatized for radio in 1980, several others of his works were broadcast on the BBC, including the true crime series John Mortimer Presents: The Trials Of Marshall Hall and Sensational British Trials.

Personal life
Mortimer in 1949 married Penelope Fletcher as her second husband, later better known as Penelope Mortimer. They had a son, Jeremy Mortimer, and a daughter, Sally Silverman. The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into a film of the same name, is best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer (1971), and Rosie Mortimer (1984). He and his second wife lived in the Buckinghamshire village of Turville Heath. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999.

In September 2004, the Sunday Telegraph journalist Tim Walker revealed that Mortimer had fathered another son,  Ross Bentley, who was conceived during a secret affair Mortimer had with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier. He was born in November 1961. Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician.

In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer."

Honours
Awarded a CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998.

Death
Mortimer suffered a stroke in October 2008 and died on 16 January 2009, aged 85.

Attributes
John Mortimer was a member of English PEN.  He was patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma and president of the Royal Court Theatre, having been the chairman of its board in 1990–2000.

Bibliography

Charade, Mortimer's first novel, Bodley Head, London (1947); Viking, New York (1986); 
Rumming Park, Bodley Head, London (1948)
Answer Yes Or No, Bodley Head, London (1950)
Like Men Betrayed, Collins, London (1953); Viking, New York (1988); 
The Narrowing Stream, Collins, London (1954); Viking, New York (1989); 
Three Winters, Collins, London (1956)
Heaven and Hell (including The Fear of Heaven and The Prince of Darkness) (1976)
Will Shakespeare (1977)
Rumpole of the Bailey (1978); 
The Trials of Rumpole (1979)
Rumpole's Return (1980)
Regina v Rumpole (1981)
Rumpole for the Defence (1982)
Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part Of Life (autobiography) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1982); ; Houghton Mifflin, New York (1982); 
The First Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1983)
Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
A Choice of Kings, in Alan Durband, ed., Playbill 3 (Nelson Thornes, 1966), 
Edwin and Other Plays (1984)
In Character (1984); 
Paradise Postponed (1985); 
Character Parts (1986); 
Rumpole for the Prosecution (1986)
Rumpole's Last Case (1987)
The Second Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1987)
Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988)
Glasnost (BBC Radio Four, 1988)
Summer's Lease (1988); 
Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989)  - stand-alone publication of short story first published in The Trials of Rumpole (1979) 
Rumpole a La Carte (1990)
Titmuss Regained (1990)
Great Law And Order Stories (1990)
The Rapstone Chronicles (omnibus; 1991)
Rumpole On Trial (1992)
Dunster (1992); 
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths (1992) (with G K Chesterton and Ralph McInerny)
The Oxford Book of Villains (1992)
The Best of Rumpole: A Personal Choice (1993)
Under the Hammer (1994)
Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life (autobiography), Viking, London (1994); Viking, NY (1995); 
Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
Rumpole and the Younger Generation (1995)  - stand-alone publication of short story first published in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) 
Felix in the Underworld (1996)
The Third Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1997)
The Sound of Trumpets (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully (autobiography), Viking Penguin, London (2000); ; Viking Press, New York (2001); 
Rumpole Rests His Case (2002)
Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002)
The Brancusi Trial (2003)
Where There's a Will (autobiography), Viking, London (2003) ; Viking, New York (2005); 
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004); 
Quite Honestly (2005); 
The Scales of Justice (2005); 
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006); 
The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole (2007; in United States as Rumpole Misbehaves)
Rumpole at Christmas (2009)

Select screenwriting credits
The Innocents (additional dialogue, 1961)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
John and Mary (1969)
 Edwin (1984, TV film)
Maschenka (1987) (Vladimir Nabokov novel adaptation directed by John Goldschmidt)
Tea With Mussolini (1999)

References

The Radio Companion by Paul Donovan, HarperCollins (1991) 
Halliwell's Television Companion, Third edition, Grafton (1986) 
Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th edition, ed Ian Herbert, Gale (1981) 
John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate by Graham Lord, Orion (2005)

External links

John Mortimer plays in Bristol University Theatre Archive

John Mortimer biography
Finding Aid to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at The Bancroft Library
Inventory to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Recordings and Photos of the visit by Sir John to the College Historical Society in October 2007

Obituary: Sir John Mortimer (BBC)
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (1923-2009), barrister, playwright and writer Sitter in 7 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)

1923 births
2009 deaths
Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
British Book Award winners
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English barristers
English dramatists and playwrights
English short story writers
English television writers
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Knights Bachelor
People educated at Gibbs School
People educated at The Dragon School
People educated at Harrow School
People from Hampstead
People from Wycombe District
Prix Italia winners
Booker authors' division
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male short story writers
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British short story writers
20th-century English male writers
British male television writers
John
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English lawyers
Members of the Inner Temple
Queen's Counsel 1901–2000
The 1962 United States Senate election in South Dakota took place on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Republican Senator Francis H. Case ran for re-election to a third term. He won the Republican primary against Attorney General A. C. Miller, but shortly after the primary, died. The Republican State Central Committee named Lieutenant Governor Joseph H. Bottum as Case's replacement on the ballot, and Governor Archie Gubbrud appointed Bottum to fill the vacancy caused by Case's death. In the general election, Bottum was opposed by Democratic nominee George McGovern, the Director of Food for Peace and the former U.S. Congressman from South Dakota's 1st congressional district. The contest between Bottum and McGovern was quite close, with McGovern narrowly defeating him for re-election by just 597 votes, making him the first Democrat to win a Senate election in South Dakota since William J. Bulow's win in 1936.

Democratic Primary

Candidates
Former Lieutenant Governor John F. Lindley announced that he would run for the U.S. Senate, but dropped out of the race when former Congressman George McGovern, who briefly served in the Kennedy administration as Director of Food for Peace, announced that he would run. McGovern was the only Democratic candidate to file for the race, and the primary election did not appear on the ballot.

Republican Primary

Candidates
 Francis H. Case, incumbent U.S. senator
 A. C. Miller, South Dakota Attorney General

Results

Several weeks after winning the Republican primary, Senator Case died in office. The Republican Party of South Dakota named Lieutenant Governor Joseph H. Bottum as Case's replacement on the ballot, and Governor Gubbrud appointed him as Case's successor.

General election

Results

References

South Dakota
1962
1962 South Dakota elections Legal Case (18 April 1986 – after 2006) was an Irish-bred British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He did not appear until the summer of his three-year-old season, but then made rapid progress, winning two minor races and the Select Stakes before recording his biggest win in the Champion Stakes in October 1989. He was never as good again, but did win the Premio Roma in 1990. After his retirement from racing he had some success as a breeding stallion in Brazil.

Background
Legal Case was a bay horse with no white markings bred in Ireland by Ovidstown Investments Ltd. He was sired by the dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Alleged out of the mare Maryinsky. Alleged was a successful stallion, and a strong influence for stamina: his best winners included Miss Alleged, Shantou, Law Society and Midway Lady. Maryinsky won two minor races at Del Mar racetrack in 1980. Apart from Legal Case, Maryinsky also produced La Sky, the dam of The Oaks winner Love Divine who in turn produced the St Leger winner Sixties Icon.

During his racing career Legal Case was owned by the businessman Sir Gordon White (later Baron White of Hull) and trained at the Bedford House stable in Newmarket by Luca Cumani.

Racing career

1989: three-year-old season
Legal Case was unraced as a two-year-old and did not appear on a racecourse until June 1989, when he contested a maiden race over eight and a half furlongs at Beverley Racecourse. Ridden by Ray Cochrane he started 8/11 favourite and recovered from a slow start to win by three quarters of a length from Enigma with the pair finishing ten lengths clear of the other twelve runners. A month later he was ridden by Frankie Dettori when he started 2/9 for a graduation race (for horses with no more than one previous win) at Windsor Racecourse and won by six lengths from Silly Habit. Cochrane regained the ride when Legal Case was moved up in class for the Listed Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor in August in which he was matched against older horses for the first time. He started favourite but was beaten three lengths by the Michael Stoute-trained colt Dolpour, with Opening Verse finishing fifth of the seven runners.

In September Legal Case was moved up to Group Three class for the Select Stakes over ten furlongs at Goodwood Racecourse. Ridden by Dettori he started the 7/4 favourite against four opponents. After being restrained in the early stages he took the lead a furlong out and drew away to win by four lengths from Greenwich Papillon with Indian Queen three lengths back in third place. The colt was then moved up to the highest level when he was sent to France to contest the 68th running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe over 2400 metres at Longchamp Racecourse on 8 October. Starting at odds of 18/1 he was towards the rear of the nineteen-runner field for most of the way before making steady progress in the straight and finishing eighth, less than five lengths behind the winner Carroll House.

Less than two weeks after his run at Longchamp, Legal Case, ridden by Cochrane, was one of eleven horses to contest the Champion Stakes over ten furlongs at Newmarket Racecourse. Dolpour was made favourite on 4/1 with Legal Case  5/1 second choice in the betting alongside the four-year-old Ile de Chypre, the winner of the Juddmonte International. The other contenders included the Dewhurst Stakes winner Scenic, the improving handicapper Braashee, the Royal Lodge Stakes winner High Estate and Ile de Nisky (fourth in The Derby). Ile de Chypre led from the start, with Legal Case being restrained towards the rear of the field before making progress in the last quarter mile on the stands side (the left side from the jockeys' viewpoint). Inside the final furlong the three-year-olds Dolpour, Legal Case and Scenic moved up to challenge Ile de Chypre, although Scenic was squeezed for room and failed to maintain his run. The final strides saw Dolpour, Ile de Chypre and Legal Case racing neck-and-neck before crossing the line together. After a photo finish, Legal Case was declared the winner by a head from Dolpour, with Ile de Chypre a short head away in third.

1990: four-year-old season
In 1990 Dettori took over from Cochrane as Cumani's stable jockey. Legal Case remained in training as a four-year-old, but did not appear until the Royal Ascot meeting in June when he finished fourth behind Batshoof, Relief Pitcher and Terimon in the Prince of Wales's Stakes. He started favourite for the Princess of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket on 10 July but never looked likely to win and finished fifth of the seven runners behind Sapience. Eighteen days later he started at odds of 14/1 for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot but made no impact and came home tenth of the eleven runners. The colt showed better form when he returned in autumn. In his second attempt at the Arc de Triomphe, he finished sixth of the twenty-one runners, six lengths behind the winner Saumarez. When bidding to win a second Champion Stakes on 20 October he stayed on well in the closing stages to take third place behind In the Groove and Linamix. On his final appearance, Legal Case was sent to Italy for the Group One Premio Roma over 2000 metres on heavy ground at Capannelle Racecourse on 10 November. Ridden as in all his races that year by Dettori he won by two lengths and one and a half lengths from Candy Glen (Gran Criterium, Premio Parioli, Prix Daphnis) and Sikeston (Gran Criterium, Premio Parioli, Premio Ribot).

1991: five-year-old season
Training problems kept Legal Case off the racecourse for most of the 1991 season and he made only two appearances in late autumn. On 29 October he started odds-favourite against three opponents in a minor race at Salisbury Racecourse and won by three and a half lengths from the Bosphorus Trophy winner Maraakiz. On his final start he returned to Rome for the Premio Roma in November but finished fifth of eleven behind Sikeston.

Stud career
At the end of his racing career, Legal Case was exported to become a breeding stallion in Brazil. His last foals were born in 2007. The best of his offspring included Evil Knievel, a Grade I winner in Brazil and Virginie, who won the Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park Racetrack in 1999.

Pedigree

Legal Case was inbred 4 × 4 to Princequillo, meaning that this stallion appears twice in the fourth generation of his pedigree.

References

1986 racehorse births
Racehorses bred in Ireland
Racehorses trained in the United Kingdom
Thoroughbred family 14-c