Author Description

Ben Hecht (1894-1964), was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "The Shakespeare of Hollywood," he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of the most entertaining screenplays or plays in America. According to film historian Richard Corliss, he was the Hollywood screenwriter, someone who "personified Hollywood itself. " The number of screenplays he wrote or worked on that are now considered "classics" is, according to Chicago's Newberry Library, "astounding, " and included films such as, Scarface (1932), The Front Page, Twentieth Century (1934), Barbary Coast (1935), Stagecoach, Some Like It Hot, Gone with the Wind, Gunga Din, Wuthering Heights, (all 1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Monkey Business, A Farewell to Arms (1957), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and Casino Royale (1967). In 1940, a film he wrote, produced, and directed, Angels Over Broadway, was nominated for Best Screenplay. Six of his movies overall were nominated for Academy Awards, with two winning.