Cecil Lewis, whose wide-ranging career took him from flying ace to author and from broadcasting executive to Oscar winner, died on Monday at King Edward VII Hospital here, his fami…
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Cecil Lewis, whose wide-ranging career took him from flying ace to author and from broadcasting executive to Oscar winner, died on Monday at King Edward VII Hospital here, his family said. He was 98. Mr. Lewis joined the Royal Flying Corps at 17. Wounded in action in World War I, he was awarded a Military Cross. After the war, Mr. Lewis went to China as manager of commercial aviation for a British company. The Chinese Government made him a flying instructor, and he helped form a Chinese air force. Mr. Lewis returned to Britain in 1922 and became program manager for the fledgling British Broadcasting Company, precursor of the British Broadcasting Corporation. He began to meet people in the arts, among them George Bernard Shaw, whom he persuaded to go to the BBCs studio for a reading. Shaw eventually asked Mr. Lewis to adapt his play How He Lied to Her Husband for the screen. It was a success, and other theater work followed. After leaving the BBC, Mr. Lewis went to Hollywood, and in 1938, he, Ian Dalrymple and W. P. Lipscomb shared an Academy Award for the adaptation of Shaws Pygmalion. In World War II, Mr. Lewis rejoined the armed forces as a flying instructor. . He was a journalist for The Daily Mail in London from 1956 to 1966; then he moved to the Mediterranean island of Corfu. His autobiography Never Look Back, one of 19 books he wrote, was published in 1974. Mr. Lewis, who was divorced twice, is survived by his wife, Fanny, and by a son and a daughter from his first marriage.
