Ernest Gebler; Irish Author of Novels, Plays and Films

Ernest Gebler, the Irish novelist, screenwriter and playwright whose best-known work, “The Plymouth Adventure” about the Mayflower, was made into an MGM movie starring Spencer Tracy, has died. He was 83.

Gebler, once married to novelist Edna O’Brien, whose works were also made into films, died Jan. 26 of a bronchial infection in a nursing home near his native Dublin. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

He began writing at age 17 and went on to write six novels, several plays and motion picture and television scripts. including the 1968 Emmy-winning “Call Me Daddy.” That script also earned him the British National Academy’s International Award for Entertainment.

But Gebler gained his international fame and held it with his second novel, “The Plymouth Adventure,” which was the result of five years’ research on the Pilgrims’ crossing from England to Massachusetts in the 17th century. The 1950 book was an international bestseller and has been condensed as a school textbook on the Mayflower’s place in American history.

Calling the novel “an excellent story,” a 1950 Times reviewer said: “Its appeal is singularly like that of, say, ‘Robinson Crusoe.’ It builds up slowly in interest, with a wealth of simple, homely detail (taken from records) that gives the reader a sense of living on that memorable, tublike old sailing boat.”

Gebler also wrote the novel “Hoffman,” which he turned into a screenplay for the 1970 British film starring Peter Sellers. A Times reviewer said of the book in 1969: “It is brilliantly conceived and executed, immensely entertaining and poignant.”

Gebler was married to and divorced from Leatrice Gilbert, daughter of actor John Gilbert, and O’Brien. He is survived by sons John, Carlo and Sasha.

* ADDITIONAL OBITS: B10