Richard Hannay Richard Hannay Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film "The 39 Steps" (and other later film adaptations), very loosely based on Buchan's 1915 novel of the same name. In his autobiography, "Memory Hold-the-Door", Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War. Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including: He also appears as a minor character in: "The Thirty-One Kings" (2017), by
David Hannay (producer) Greater Union. From 1977 he was an independent producer and was involved in almost 50 film projects including cult classics Stone (1974) and The Man From Hong Kong (1975), Human Rights Australia Film Award winner Mapantsula (1998), Naomi Watts' first feature film Gross Misconduct (1993) and family film Hildegarde (2001) which starred Richard E. Grant and Tom Long. Hannay was passionate about encouraging new talent as an educator and mentor and across his career worked with many writers, producers and directors on their first feature films. In November 2012 Hannay established the Bathurst Film Factory co-operative to foster the filmmaker