Biography

London-born Angus MacPhail worked as a screenwriter for many years with producer Michael Balcon, but he wrote for many of Britain's most prestigious studios, such as Gainsborugh, Gaumont-British and Ealing. He is probably best known for his script for the classic British feature Dead of Night (1945), but also worked for Alfred Hitchcock, writing The Wrong Man (1956). MacPhail had a reputation as one of the British film industry's best collaborators and "script doctors", and in fact of his 23 scripts for Ealing Studios, he had sole credit on only one.
- IMDb mini biography by: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Reputed to have introduced the term "McGuffin" to Alfred Hitchcock during the production of The 39 Steps (1935).

The pressures on him during his time as the senior script editor at Ealing Films contributed to his alcoholism, which in turn was the chief cause of his relatively early death.