- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancis Claud Cockburn
- Educated at Universities of Oxford, Budapest & Berlin. Became New York & Washington correspondent for The Times newspaper in 1929. Resigned in 1933 to found his own news-sheet The Week, which achieved notoriety. Fought on Republican side in Spanish civil war, and was diplomatic correspondent for the Daily Worker. Has written short stories & articles for New Statesman, The Saturday Evening Post, Hibernia & Private Eye Moved to Ireland in 1947.- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Ferstat <dferstat@iinet.net.au>
- Claud Cockburn was a noted British radical journalist. He was born in Peking, China, in 1904, and was the scion of an aristocratic family; one of his ancestors was the British commander who ordered the burning of the White House during the War of 1812. His cousin was the novelist Evelyn Waugh, but Cockburn's own political sympathies ran to the left.
In 1933 he founded a political journal called "The Week," which exposed people in the British ruling class who had sympathies for fascism, especially the "Cliveden Set" of pro-Nazi intriguers. He also covered the Spanish Civil War under the pseudonym Frank Pitcairn for the British Communist Party's newspaper, the Daily Worker.
In the early post-war years that coincided with the onset of the Cold War, Cockburn encountered the difficulties typical of people suspected (correctly or incorrectly) of Communist sympathies. He moved to Ireland in 1947 and wrote several novels, the most famous of which was "Beat the Devil" (under the pseudonym James Helvick). His works of non-fiction included books on English popular fiction, a history of the Thirties, British trade unions, and his own multi-volume autobiography.
Of his five children, the most famous are the three journalistic brothers Alexander, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn. Claud Cockburn died in 1981.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jed King
- Spouse
- Children
- RelativesOlivia Wilde(Grandchild)Laura Flanders(Grandchild)Stephanie Flanders(Grandchild)Otis Sudeikis(Great Grandchild)Daisy Sudeikis(Great Grandchild)
- Father with Jean Ross of mystery writer Sarah Caudwell.
- His second partner was Jean Ross who served as Christopher Isherwood's model for Sally Bowles in his "Berlin Stories," the original source for Cabaret (1972).
- Father of Alexander Cockburn, writer for "CounterPunch" and "The Nation", and of journalists Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn.
- Grandfather of Olivia Wilde and grandfather-in-law of Tao Ruspoli, in turn brother of Bartolomeo Ruspoli.
- Father-in-law of Leslie Cockburn.
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