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Jules Furthman

Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Pauline Kael once wrote that Furthman "has written about half of the most entertaining movies to come out of Hollywood (Ben Hecht wrote most of the other half)."[1]

Jules Furthman
Jules Furthman (left) and actor William Russell in 1919
Born(1888-03-05)March 5, 1888
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedSeptember 22, 1966(1966-09-22) (aged 78)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, director and producer
Years active1915–1959
SpouseSybil Seely (m. 1920-1966)
Children1

Biography

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Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he wrote under the pen name "Stephen Fox" as he thought Furthman sounded too German.[2]

He wrote screenplays for a number of important or popular films, including The Docks of New York (1928), Thunderbolt (1929), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Bombshell (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Come and Get It (1936), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Nightmare Alley (1947). He wrote credited screenplays for eight films directed by Josef von Sternberg and an equal number for Howard Hawks.[3]

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Mutiny on the Bounty.[4]

In 1920, he married the actress Sybil Seely, who played in five films directed by Buster Keaton. She and Furthman had a son in 1921, and she retired from acting in 1922. They remained together until his death.[5]

Furthman died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1966 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. His remains were brought home and interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[6]

Legacy

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On the UK television program Scene By Scene, host Mark Cousins said, "Furthman wrote some of your best lines and he also wrote for her (Marlene Dietrich), those sort of, sexy and ambiguous lines." Lauren Bacall replied, "He did? Well, that I didn't know. I asked Howard Hawks once, why he used Furthman; as he didn't write the entire screenplay. And he (Hawks) said, 'If there are five ways to play a scene, he (Furthman) will write a sixth way.' And of course, that makes perfect sense and that's exactly what Furthman did. He always came around the back way and suddenly there was a little surprise there."[7]

List of screenplays

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References

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  1. ^ Kael, Pauline (October 13, 1967). "The Frightening Power of Bonnie and Clyde". The New Yorker.
  2. ^ Thomson, David (May 6, 2014). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition. Knopf. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-101-87470-7.
  3. ^ Thomson, David (May 6, 2014). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition. Knopf. pp. 384, 385. ISBN 978-1-101-87470-7.
  4. ^ "The 8th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).
  5. ^ Walker, Brent E. (2013). Mack Sennett's Fun Factory. Volume 2. McFarland. p. 551. ISBN 9780786477111. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  6. ^ Aig, Dennis Ira (1983). Jules Furthman and the popular aesthetics of screenwriting (PhD thesis). The Ohio State University.
  7. ^ Cousins, Mark (2002). Scene by Scene: Film Actors and Directors Discuss Their Work. Laurence King. ISBN 9781856692878.
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