Charles Lederer

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Charles Lederer December 31 1906 March 5 1976 was an American screenwriter and film director He was born into a prominent theatrical family in New York and after his parents divorced was raised in California by his aunt Marion Davies mistress to newspaper publisher William Randolf Hearst A child prodigy he entered college at age 13 but dropped out after a few years to work as a journalist with Hearsts newspapers Lederer is recognized for his comic and acerbic adaptations and collaborative screenplays of the 1940s and early 1950s His screenplays frequently delved into the corrosive influences of wealth and power His comedy writing was considered among the best of the period and he along with writer friends Ben Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz became major contributors to the film genre known as screwball comedy Among his notable screenplays which he wrote or cowrote were The Front Page 1931 the critically acclaimed His Girl Friday 1940 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953 The Spirit of St Louis 1957 Oceans 11 1960 and Mutiny on the Bounty 1962 With Ben Hecht he cowrote the original Kiss of Death which was to feature the actor Richard Widmarks chilling debut as the psychopathic killer with a giggle In addition he wrote and directed the 1959 film Never Steal Anything Small an adaptation of a play by Maxwell Anderson and Rouben Mamoulian starring James Cagney The Spirit of St Louis was Lederers last significant film work The films that followed that were primarily vehicles for established stars In 1954 he won three Tony Awards for the Broadway Musical Kismet as Best Producer Musical as Best Author Musical with Luther Davis and as coauthor of the book which with several collaborators contributed to the Best Musical win