Charles Foster (writer)

Charles Foster (born 1923) is a Canadian publicist and writer. He was born in Cheshire, England. During World War II he was a pilot with the Royal Air Force. The RAF sent him to a base in Alberta, Canada for flight training and while on leave he visited Hollywood. There, he met Sidney Olcott, a Canadian-born silent film star who introduced him to numerous other expatriate Canadian actors in Hollywood including Mary Pickford. After the war, Foster used these contacts to begin a career as a publicist in London and in Hollywood, working for such well-known performers as Marilyn Monroe, Richard Burton, Boris Karloff, Errol Flynn and Benny Hill. He ghostwrote Flynn's 1955 memoir My Wicked, Wicked Ways. Foster later became a writer for comedians in the 1960s including Bob Hope and Jack Benny and contributed scripts to a number of 1960s sitcoms including The Beverly Hillbillies.

He returned to Canada in the 1970s where he became a speechwriter for the Canadian Government, and eventually came to Riverview, New Brunswick, where he still resides, to begin as newspaper editor for the Moncton Free Press. In his retirement he delved into his remarkable store of memories to publish three books on Canadians in Hollywood: Stardust and Shadows (about the silent film era), and Once Upon a Time in Paradise (about the period from the late 1920s to the 1950s), and most recent book, Donald Brian: the King of Broadway, about the nearly forgotten performer Donald Brian.

His autobiography is now with a US publisher and should be released early in 2012. For seven years he has contributed monthly articles to the Seniors Advocate in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He wrote more than 100 articles for the bi-weekly Albert County Chronicle, a community newspaper, until it ceased publication in 2010. In 2010-2011 he has had articles published in 21 magazines and newspapers in Canada, the United States, England and Australia.

As the original publicist for the world's longest running play, Agatha Christie's, The Mousetrap, in London, England, he is currently preparing a 60-page booklet of memories of Ms. Christie and the early days of the play, for the 60th anniversary performance in September 2012, a performance he plans, at 89, to attend.

Select bibliography

• Donald Brian: the King of Broadway (2005)
• Once upon a time in paradise: Canadians in the Golden Age of Hollywood (2003)
• Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in early Hollywood] (2000)
• The Trees Around Us: A History of the Forests of Nova Scotia (1985)

See also:

• Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

External links

• Writers' union
• Foster on Walter Pidgeon

Persondata
Name	Foster, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1923
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death