Richard Beynon was born in Melbourne in 1925 and was educated at University High School and at the Melbourne Conservatorium. He was acclaimed for his play The Shifting Heart.

Beynon moved to England in 1947 and worked as an actor, script writer, editor and television producer for the BBC on shows such as Z Cars and The Duchess of Duke Street. He returned briefly to Australia in 1961 and again in the 1980s as a guest lecturer and Writer-in-Residence at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Although some reference sources give his year of birth as 1927, the obituary in the Australian (18.3.1999) and the Sydney Morning Herald (8.3.1999) state that Beynon was born on 28 March 1925.