Short answers, pulled from the story.
Willy Russell's most famous works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers, and Our Day Out. Educating Rita premiered in 1980, Blood Brothers won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1983, and Shirley Valentine opened in 1986.
Before becoming a playwright, Willy Russell left school at fifteen to become a women's hairdresser, eventually running his own salon until the age of twenty. He also worked as a semi-professional singer, writing and performing original songs in folk clubs, before returning to college to qualify as a teacher.
Yes, Willy Russell received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 1983 film Educating Rita. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for the same screenplay, and a further BAFTA nomination for his Shirley Valentine screenplay.
The 1988 revival of Blood Brothers ran for twenty-four years in the West End, accumulating over 10,000 consecutive performances before closing in November 2012. A separate Broadway production ran for two years beginning in 1993.
Willy Russell was born on the 23rd of August 1947 in Whiston, Lancashire. His professional theatrical career began at the Liverpool Everyman, which commissioned his first professional stage work after writer John McGrath saw Russell's one-act plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1972.
Russell published his first novel, The Wrong Boy, in 2000. In 2004 he released the album Hoovering the Moon on Pure Records, drawing on his earlier career as a singer-songwriter performing in folk clubs.