Frank Deasy: Screenwriter passes away at forty nine

Frank Deasy: Screenwriter passes away at forty nine

Screenwriter Frank Deasy died at the age of forty nine. He had been battling with cancer and lost it while waiting for a liver transplant.

Deasy was on the list for an organ donation. He died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in the early hours of this morning.

His former colleagues including actor Dougray Scott have paid tribute to the writer of Prime Suspect - The Final Act and Father and Son.

The Emmy award-winning screenwriter's television credits include Prime Suspect - The Final Act, Looking After Jo Jo and Father And Son.

Anthony Jones, of United Agents, said in a statement yesteday: "The film and television writer Frank Deasy died suddenly today at the age of 49. Among his best-known credits were the miniseries Looking After Jo Jo, Real Men, England Expects, the final miniseries of Prime Suspect, for which he won many awards including an International Emmy, and, last year, The Passion.

"He was suffering from liver cancer and, in the past 10 days, his article in the Observer highlighting the lack of organ donors in Great Britain and Ireland generated an enormous response from the public and in particular from the Irish government. He leaves a wife and three young children."

Scott described Deasy as- "brave, kind, selfless and passionate to the end".

"Today a great, great man was taken away from us. Very few times in life is one fortunate and blessed enough to meet a person like Frank Deasy," he added.

"He was quite simply the most extraordinary and brilliant writer I have ever worked with and one of the most extraordinary and beautiful men I was blessed to have met. Whenever I spent time or talked with Frank I always felt the warmth, wisdom and sheer joy of life that I remember getting from my own father. That's how special he was to me. He was."

Deasy lived in Glasgow with his wife and three children. He was originally from Dublin and moved to Scotland 12 years ago.

His cinema credits include The Grass Arena and Captives and he was working on Gaza, a feature film starring Helen Mirren.

Deasy wrote about his battle with a primary liver tumour that was diagnosed in January, in the Observer, this Sunday. He described the feeling to be living under a "death threat" while still feeling fit and well.

He wrote: "Little changes at home, I take the kids to school, we celebrate birthdays and argue over whether they're old enough to walk to school on their own.

"They probably are but the one thing I know for certain is they're not old enough to be without their dad.

"The thought of them losing their father at this point in their lives feels unbearable, too cruel to contemplate, yet each day that passes it comes closer."