Frank Ulrich Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau (then in Germany). They came to England as refugees in 1939. Until 1943 he attended Bunce Court School at Lenham, near Faversham in Kent, (a school founded by Anna Essinger, a German Jewish-Quaker who had started a private school in southern Germany, which was relocated to England in 1933). He then spent a year at Saint Martins School of Art.

He started as an actor and playwright with the International Theatre Group and the Unity Theatre.In 1951 he married actress Jacqueline Sylvester, who collaborated with him on some of his plays. His plays were noted for their strong parts for female actors, such as in his one big success, The Killing of Sister George, starring Beryl Reid, which was later made into a film. As well as his own plays he made several translations and adaptations from his native German.He worked as Theatre Critic for The Sunday Telegraph between 1968 and 1978. After a long struggle with Parkinson's disease he died in London, 5 August 1996.

Original plays

• 1950, Minuet For Stuffed Birds
• 1964, The Formation Dancers
• 1965, Cleo (one-act)
• 1964, The Killing of Sister George
• 1967, Studies Of The Nude
• 1968, Mrs Mouse, Are You Within?
• 1969, The Window
• 1972, Blank Pages
• 1973, Keyholes
• 1972, Christmas Carol (one-act)
• 1972, Notes On A Love Affair
• 1975, Beauty And The Beast (for children)
• 1976, Portrait Of The Artist
• 1977, Blind Date (one-act)
• 1978, Ballad Of Wilfred II (one-act)
• 1978, The Merman Of Oxford

Adaptations and translations

• 1952, Merry-Go-Round (La Ronde) by Arthur Schnitzler
• 1969, The Guardsman by Ferenc Molnár
• 1976, Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler
• 1980, The Weavers by Gerhart Hauptmann
• 1987, From Morning To Midnight by Georg Kaiser
• 1991, La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler