English playwright and novelist, notable for his capture of atmosphere and the Cockney dialect spoken in the East End of London.

Hamilton began acting in 1921 and then, fascinated by theatrical melodrama, took to writing. He became known with the novel Craven House (1926). Three very successful motion pictures were based on works by Hamilton. His play Rope (first performed 1929; U.S. title Rope's End) was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock under the title Rope (1948). The play Gaslight (1938; also called Angel Street) was phenomenally successful not only on the stage but also as a motion picture (1944), under the title Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer; a British-made film titled Angel Street, from the same play, was released in 1952. From his novel Hangover Square (1941) was made the motion picture of the same title (1945). Hamilton also wrote novels portraying the unpleasantness of the modern city: The Midnight Bell (1929) and The Plains of Cement (1934), both included in the volume Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (1935).