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Post by spiderwort on Apr 27, 2017 15:06:26 GMT
Taking a cue from Richard Kimble's thread about writers who became actors, this is a similar topic that has always interested me. There were, of course, actor/writers/directors/producers in Hollywood's silent era who pretty much did it all. Not to ignore those, but I'm more interested in those who came later when directing in Hollywood was the domain of the director alone. I believe that Preston Sturges was the first Hollywood screen writer who became a director with his film, The Great McGinty (1940), after which he wrote and directed a slew of amazing films in the forties (The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek) before his career fizzled out.
Other Hollywood directors who started as writers (and in some cases also actors or producers) whom I admire include:
John Huston
Billy Wilder
Orson Welles
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Woody Allen
Nora Ephron
Delmar Daves
I know there are more, certainly more contemporary ones, but these are the ones I know and really appreciate.
When you post, remember that I'm looking for Hollywood screenwriters who became directors, not those who began as writer-directors (of which there are many). More contemporary names are permissible. Thanks.
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Post by mattgarth on Apr 27, 2017 15:40:03 GMT
Nunnally Johnson (screenplay of JESSE JAMES, GRAPES OF WRATH) / later directed (MAN IN GRAY FLANNEL SUIT, THREE FACES OF EVE)
Philip Dunne (screenplay of HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, THE ROBE) / later directed (BLUE DENIM, TEN NORTH FREDRICK)
George Seaton (screenplay of SONG OF BERNADETTE) / then directed (MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, THE COUNTRY GIRL)
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Post by Salzmank on Apr 27, 2017 16:31:39 GMT
If I'm Remembering Correctly...
Blake Edwards
Sam Fuller
Frank Tashlin
George Axelrod
James Clavell
And didn't that greatest of all screenwriters, Ben Hecht, direct a movie once, or am I just misremembering?
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Post by Salzmank on Apr 27, 2017 17:18:33 GMT
You're right about Tashlin; I wasn't thinking of all the animated shorts he did as directing, though of course animation is how he started.
I remembered Axelrod because Andrew Sarris has a line in The American Cinema about how Axelrod was annoyed with being a writer-producer in a director's world, or something like that.
It's a surprise to me that Hecht directed eight films too. I knew he'd done at least one, but I thought directing was a short-lived experiment for him!
Thanks for the clarifications.
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Post by teleadm on Apr 27, 2017 18:03:34 GMT
Maybe he doesn't belong here but Clifford Odets the playwriter, also wrote a screenplay The General Died at Dawn 1936, and directed two movies 15 years apart None But the Lonely Heart 1944 and The Story on Page One 1959.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 20:30:57 GMT
William Peter Blatty
Paul Schraeder
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Post by Richard Kimble on Apr 28, 2017 5:48:32 GMT
Frank Tashlin, who, for all intents and purposes was a writer-director from the beginning and had long careers doing both - 33 years writing and 63 years directing! Huh? Tashlin didn't even live to be 63 years old. |
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 28, 2017 6:00:54 GMT
Ben Hecht His first screenplay and story for Underworld in 1927 won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in Hollywood's first Academy award ceremony His movie career can be defined by about twenty credited screenplays he wrote for Hawks, Hitchcock, Hathaway, Lubitsch, Wellman, Sternberg, and himself.
Ben Hecht has seven credits for directing his first in 1934 Crime Without Passion and his last in 1952 Actor's and Sin
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Post by Richard Kimble on Apr 28, 2017 6:17:47 GMT
More than one well-known director broke into films as a scriptwriter in silent days. IIRC both Hawks and Edmund Goulding started as writers. I believe Goulding has at least one sound credit, The Flame Within, that he wrote, produced, and directed. A number of screewnriters got a chance to direct but proved far too verbose and were yanked out of the director's chair Dudley Nichols -- Mourning Becomes Electra Dudley Murphy -- The Emperor Jones Claude Binyon -- The Saxon Charm Robert Rossen was a writer for years before he got the chance to direct Norman Krasna wrote many plays and scripts. He also directed a few films, notably Princess O'Rourke, for which his script won an Oscar. Alan LeMay, author of the novel The Searchers, directed one film, High Lonesome (1950) Roy Huggins began as a hard boiled private eye novelist, became a noir screenwriter, shifted over to westerns, and eventually bceame enormously successful in TV, creating Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and The Fugitive. He directed one film, Hangman's Knot (1952) Gason Kanin is something of an oddity. He essentialy started as a director, then became a very successful playwright and screenwriter, not directing another film for a quarter century. Another curiosity is Ralph Nelson, who wrote an antiwar stage play called The Wind is Ninety. Kirk Douglas, who was in the play, wondered in his momoirs why Nelson gave up writing, "he showed such a talent for it". Per Wiki Nelson wrote a 1960 TV film about the making of the live TV play "Requiem for a Heavyweight". The Man in the Funny SuitWilliam Castle wrote an anti-Nazi play before WWII and produced it himself. It's best remembered for the typically Castleian tactic he used to drum up publicity; he hired people to dress up as Nazis and "protest" the play by marching in front of the theatre carrying picket signs. He wasn't exactly a screenwriter or an actor, but Group Theatre co-founder Harold Clurman directed one film, Deadline at Dawn (1946) Per Wiki Nelson wrote a 1960 TV film about the making of the live TV play "Requiem for a Heavyweight" |
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Post by petrolino on Apr 28, 2017 20:56:25 GMT
Robert Towne worked as a successful scriptwriter for a couple of decades before finally catching the directing bug; he's directed a small handful of pictures including 'Personal Best' (1982) and 'Tequila Sunrise' (1988).
These five talented guys are active in Hollywood today ...
Steve Zaillian (born January 30, 1953 in Fresno, California) - 'Searching For Bobby Fischer' (1993) / 'A Civil Action' (1998)
Shane Black (born December 16, 1961 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) - 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' (2005) / 'The Nice Guys' (2016)
David Koepp (Born: June 9, 1963 in Pewaukee, Wisconsin) - 'Stir Of Echoes' (1999) / 'Secret Window' (2004)
Joss Whedon (born June 23, 1964 in New York City, New York) - 'Serenity' (2005) / 'The Avengers' (2012)
David S. Goyer (born December 22, 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) - 'Blade : Trinity' (2004) / 'The Unborn' (2009)
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