Val Guest began his career as an actor on the British stage and in early sound films. He ran the one-man London office of "The Hollywood Reporter" until an encounter with director Marcel Varnel led to a screen writing job at Gainsborough Studios. Guest's directing career began in the early 1940s with a Ministry of Information short about the perils of sneezing (!), an inauspicious start to a lengthy roster of films that includes the science-fiction classics Le monstre (1955), La marque (1957), Le redoutable homme des neiges (1957) and Le jour où la terre prit feu (1961). He was married to the actress Yolande Donlan from 1954 until his death in 2006, aged 94.
