Researching Alan Marshall

Marshall was a lower-order right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow bowler for most of his first-class cricket career, but in the last three seasons in which he played, from 1929 to 1931, he also acted at times as Somerset's wicketkeeper because of the long-running ill-health of the county's regular keeper, Wally Luckes.

Educated at Taunton School, where he was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer, Marshall played in six Somerset matches in the 1914 season. After war service, he went back to Taunton School as a schoolmaster and stayed there until his retirement in 1955, playing much club cricket in the Taunton area. He reappeared in the Somerset side for a few games in the 1922, 1923 and 1926 seasons, without making much impact. His highest score was 37 in the match against Leicestershire at Leicester in 1922. In 1927, he played nine matches, and at times batted as high as No 4 in the batting order, but without success: he did, however, achieve his best bowling figures with three wickets for 51 runs in a rain-affected game against Glamorgan at Bath.

Marshall first played as wicketkeeper in the 1929 season and in 1930 he played 14 matches in total, although in some of them Frank Lee was the designated wicketkeeper. After Luckes' recovery, he did not play again in first-class cricket.

His brother Leslie also played for Somerset between 1913 and 1931.

In 1967, Marshall was working as a film editor at Signal Films (part of EUE/Screen Gems) in Berwick St London. He left to be a commercials producer at Collett, Dickenson & Pearce (CDP). In 1970, he and director Alan Parker established an advertising company, which brought the pair domestic and international awards.

Before producing feature films, with help from CDP, Marshall and Parker started the TVC production company Alan Parker Productions. Marshall and Parker's first feature film, the 1976 musical Bugsy Malone, garnered critical success, achieving eight British Academy Award nominations. The pair followed their successful feature film debut with the 1978 neo-noir drama Midnight Express, written by Oliver Stone, with David Puttnam joining the producing team. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, and took home Oscars for best screenplay and best original score. It was also nominated for the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or.

Marshall continued to make his mark as a film producer with critical films including Fame, Shoot the Moon, and Pink Floyd – The Wall. After the 1987 film Angel Heart, Marshall decided to leave working with Parker to focus on other feature films. Marshall has been the producer for other features such as Homeboy, Jacob's Ladder, Basic Instinct and Hollow Man.