The Charmed Life — Achmed Abdullah

Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff (1881-1945) was a Russian-born writer. He wrote under the a pseudonym Achmed Abdullah. He is most noted for his pulp stories of crime, mystery and adventure. He wrote screenplays for some successful films. He was the author of the progressive Siamese drama Chang, an Academy Award nominated film made in 1927. He earned an Academy Award nomination for collaborating on the screenplay to the 1935 film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Although he was born Russian Orthodox, his grandparents raised him as a Muslim. At the age of 12, he was sent to Eton; and then to Oxford University to be educated. Upon his graduation he joined the British Army. Throughout his military career, he served in India, Afghanistan, Tibet, Africa, China and Turkey. He mostly spent the time in the military as a spy because of his wide-knowledge of Oriental and Middle-Eastern customs and religions. He travelled widely in Russia, Europe, Africa, the Middle- East and China and spoke many languages and dialects. In the early 1910s he emigrated to the United States and eventually became a successful, well-paid writer, playwright and later on, a Hollywood screenwriter.