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Boulle Pierre Biography

French writer famous for "The Bridge Over the River Kwai," 1954, which was made into an award winning film in 1957. He earned a degree in electrical engineering in Paris and spent two years as an engineer before moving to Malaysia in 1938 to oversee a rubber plantation near Kuala Lumpur. He joined the French army in Indochina in 1939. After the fall of France, he fled to Singapore and joined the Free French as a secret agent. Posing as an Englishman, he helped organize resistance to the Japanese in China, Burma and Indochina. Boulle was captured by the Vichy French in 1943 while trying to float down the Mekong River on a raft, and was sentenced to a life of hard labor. While in prison, he began keeping a diary. After he escaped in 1944, he made his career as a writer. His novels include "Planet of the Apes," 1963, which was made into a movie in 1968. He also wrote two books of memoirs, 1967 and 1990. Died on 1/30/1994, Paris. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less