Scriptwriters

1. Truman Capote

Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Murder by Death (1976), The Innocents (1961) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). He died on August 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

In Cold Blood

2. Charles Brackett

Writer | Sunset Boulevard

Charles Brackett, born in Saratoga Springs, New York, of Scottish ancestry, followed in his attorney-father's footsteps and graduated with a law degree from Harvard University in 1920. He practised law for several years, before commencing work as drama critic for The New Yorker (1925-29), in ...

Midnignt(1939) Ninotchka(1939) The Lost Weekend

3. Robert Bolt

Writer | Lawrence of Arabia

Son of a small shopkeeper, he attended Manchester Grammar School. He later said that he made poor uses of his opportunities there. He went to work in an insurance office, but later entered Manchester University, taking a degree in History. A post-graduate year at Exeter University led to a ...

A Man for All Seasons

4. Tonino Guerra

Writer | Amarcord

Legendary Italian screenwriter was born Antonio Guerra on the 16th of March 1920 in Sant'Arcangelo, Italy, south of Ravenna. He wrote several short stories, poetry and novels and in 1956 his first screenplay "Man and Wolves" (co-written by Elio Petri) was directed by Giuseppe De Santis. Three years...

Blow-Up

5. Ernest Lehman

Writer | North by Northwest

One of the most critically and commercially successful screenwriters in Hollywood history, Lehman grew up on Long Island, graduated from NY's City College. One of his first jobs was as a copywriter for a Broadway publicist. This experience would later be reflected in his novel and screenplay, "...

West Side Story

6. Preston Sturges

Writer | Sullivan's Travels

Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti). He served in the U.S....

The Invisible Man imitation of Life

7. André Cayatte

Writer | Justice est faite

André Cayatte (b.1909 in Carcassonne, Aude, France) was a lawyer turned novelist and journalist, then screenwriter in 1938, after which he became a film director in 1942. He was known in France from the 1940s to the 1970s for uncompromising films examining the complex ethical and political ...

8. Jacques Prévert

Writer | Les enfants du paradis

Jacques Prévert was born on February 4, 1900 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Children of Paradise (1945), The Score (2001) and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). He was married to Janine Tricotet and Simone Dienne. He died on April 11,...

Le Jour Se Leve

9. Stephen King

Writer | Maximum Overdrive

Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland. His parents were Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury), who worked as a caregiver at a mental institute, and Donald Edwin King, a merchant seaman. His father was born under the surname "Pollock," but used the last name ...

The Shawshank Redemption

10. Carl Mayer

Writer | Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Carl Meyer was the son of a stock speculator who committed suicide. He had to leave school at 15 to work as a secretary. Mayer moved away from Graz to Innsbruck and then Vienna, where he worked as a dramatist. Meanwhile, the events of the First World War turned him into a pacifist.

In 1917 he went ...

3 Murnau classics: The Last Laugh, Tartuffe and Sunrise

11. Ben Hecht

Writer | Notorious

Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood's and Broadway's greatest writers, won an Oscar for best original story for Underworld (1927) at the first Academy Awards in 1929 and had a hand in the writing of many classic films. He was nominated five more times for the best writing Oscar, winning (along with writing...

Scarface, Stagecoach, Angels with Dirty Faces, Gilda

12. George Axelrod

Writer | The Manchurian Candidate

George Axelrod was born on June 9, 1922 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). He was married to Joan Axelrod and Gloria Washburn. He died on June 21, 2003 in Los Angeles...

The Seven Year Itch

13. Paul Haggis

Writer | Crash

Paul Haggis established himself over twenty years with an extensive career in television, before his big break into features arrived when he became the first screenwriter to garner two Best Film Academy Awards back-to-back for his scripts: "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, ...

Million Dollar Baby

14. Dalton Trumbo

Writer | Roman Holiday

Dalton Trumbo, the Oscar-winning screenwriter, arguably the most talented, most famous of the blacklisted film professionals known to history as the Hollywood 10, was born in Montrose, Colorado to Orus Trumbo and his wife, the former Maud Tillery.

Dalton Trumbo was raised at 1124 Gunnison Ave. in ...

Papillion_from Henri Charrière's book Spartacus_from Howard Fest's book

15. I.A.L. Diamond

Writer | The Apartment

I.A.L. Diamond was born on June 27, 1920 in Ungheni, Romania [now Moldova]. He was a writer and producer, known for The Apartment (1960), Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). He was married to Barbara Diamond. He died on April 21, 1988 in Beverly Hills, California...

Buddy Buddy

16. David Mamet

Writer | House of Games

Born in 1947 in Chicago, he was educated at Goddard College, in Vermont, and studied drama at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, before returning to Chicago and establishing the St Nicholas Theatre Company in 1972. He remained their resident writer for four years. The first of his plays to secure ...

The Untouchables The Verdict

17. John Milius

Writer | Conan the Barbarian

John Milius is a screenwriter and director who came to prominence in the 1970s, when he was associated with Francis Ford Coppola and the pre-Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) George Lucas. Born on April 11, 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri, Milius was one of the first movie industry ...

18. Cesare Zavattini

Writer | Ladri di biciclette

Cesare Zavattini was born on September 20, 1902 in Luzzara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), Umberto D. (1952) and It's Forever Springtime (1950). He was married to Olga Berni. He died on October 13, 1989 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

19. William Faulkner

Writer | To Have and Have Not

William Faulkner, one of the 20th century's most gifted novelists, wrote for the movies in part because he could not make enough money from his novels and short stories to support his growing number of dependants. The author of such acclaimed novels as "The Sound and the Fury" and "Absalom, Absalom...

20. Dashiell Hammett

Writer | The Thin Man

Dashiell Hammett was born May 27, 1894, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, to Richard Hammett and Mary Bond. He joined the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1915. He enlisted in the US Army's Ambulance Corps in June 1918 and was posted to a camp 20 miles from Baltimore, where he ...

21. Ian Fleming

Writer | Casino Royale

Born into a wealthy and influential English family, Ian Fleming spent his early years attending top British schools such as Eton and Sandhurst military academy. He took to writing while schooling in Kitzbuhel, Austria, and upon failing the entrance requirements for Foreign Service joined the news ...

22. Raymond Chandler

Writer | Double Indemnity

An American novelist, writer of crime fiction featuring the private detective Philip Marlowe, Raymond (Thornton) Chandler was born in Chicago of an American father and an Anglo-Irish mother. He moved to England when his parents divorced. He attended Dulwich College and studied languages in France ...

23. Jean Cocteau

Writer | La Belle et la Bête

Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei...

24. Arthur Conan Doyle

Writer | Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer of Irish descent, considered a major figure in crime fiction. His most famous series of works consisted of the "Sherlock Holmes" stories (1887-1927), consisting of four novels and 56 short stories. His other notable series were the "Professor Challenger" ...

25. Nikos Kazantzakis

Writer | The Last Temptation of Christ

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion, Crete (Greece). He studied Law in Athens and in Paris, but soon he studied philosophy and literature. He travelled almost everywhere; he learnt many foreign languages and left his scientific research for Nitsche. At philosophy: "Ascetics" (Salvatores Dei, ...

26. H.G. Wells

Writer | The War of the Worlds

Writer, born in Bromley, Kent. He was apprenticed to a draper, tried teaching, studied biology in London, then made his mark in journalism and literature. He played a vital part in disseminating the progressive ideas which characterized the first part of the 20th-c. He achieved fame with scientific...

27. Arthur Miller

Writer | The Crucible

Arthur Asher Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in New York City, one of three children born to Augusta (nee Barnett) and Isidore Miller. His family was of Austrian Jewish descent. His father manufactured women's coats, but his business was devastated by the Depression, seeding his son's ...

28. Norman Mailer

Writer | Tough Guys Don't Dance

Norman Mailer, the Brooklyn-born and -bred writer who fought for what he characterized as the "heavyweight championship" of American letters after the 1961 death of Ernest Hemingway, never came close to his dream of writing the Great American novel, but he was a colossus of American culture and ...

29. Tennessee Williams

Writer | A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams met long-term partner Frank Merlo in the summer of 1948 (Merlo died of lung cancer in the fall of 1963). Though separated briefly in 1961 and again in 1962, the two were partners for 15 years. Merlo acted as his personal manager/secretary.

Williams spent much of his most prolific ...

30. Eugene O'Neill

Writer | Long Day's Journey Into Night

Eugene O'Neill, the winner of four Pulitzer Prizes for Drama and the 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature, is widely considered the greatest American playwright. No one, not Maxwell Anderson, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, nor Edward Albee, approaches O'Neill in terms of his artistic achievement or ...

31. D.H. Lawrence

Writer | Lady Chatterley's Lover

David Herbert Lawrence was born in Nottinghamshire, England, 11 September 1885. His father was a coal miner, his mother a genteel woman who sought education and refinement for her son. Lawrence earned a university degree and taught school for a short time. While still a student he began to publish ...

32. Isaac Asimov

Writer | I, Robot

Isaac Asimov was born Isaak Judah Ozimov, on January 2, 1920, in Petrovichi shtetl, near Smolensk, Russia. He was the oldest of three children. His father, named Judah Ozimov, and his mother, named Anna Rachel Ozimov (nee Berman), were Orthodox Jews. Ozimov family were millers (the name Ozimov ...

33. Arthur C. Clarke

Writer | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England in December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction. During ...

34. Jean Anouilh

Director | Deux sous de violettes

Jean Anouilh was born on June 23, 1910 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. He was a writer and director, known for Deux sous de violettes (1951), Le Voyageur sans bagage (1944) and Anna Karenina (1948). He was married to Nicole Lançon and Monelle Valentin. He died on October 3, 1987 in Lausanne, Vaud, ...

35. Erich Maria Remarque

Writer | A Time to Love and a Time to Die

The German novelist Erich Maria Remarque was born in Osnabrück in 1898. His first novel, the famous anti-war epic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), was written based on his experiences as a soldier in WWI, and published in 1929. He moved to Switzerland until 1939 and later emigrated to the US....

36. Lajos Biró

Writer | The Thief of Bagdad

Lajos Biró was born on August 22, 1880 in Nagyvarad, Austria-Hungary [now Oradea, Bihor, Romania]. He was a writer, known for The Thief of Bagdad (1940), The Last Command (1928) and Women Everywhere (1930). He died on September 9, 1948 in London, England, UK.

37. John le Carré

Writer | The Constant Gardener

John le Carré was born in Poole, Dorset in England on 19 October, 1931. He went to Sherborne School and, later, studied German literature for one year at University of Bern. Later, he went to Lincoln College, Oxford and graduated in Modern Languages. From 1956 to 1958, he taught at Eton and from ...

38. Robert Benton

Writer | Kramer vs. Kramer

Robert Douglas Benton is an American screenwriter and filmmaker from Waxahachie, Texas who is known for screenwriting Bonnie & Clyde, Kramer vs. Kramer and Superman. He won two Academy Awards for writing and directing Kramer vs. Kramer. He directed other feature films including Twilight, Bad ...

39. Sidney Buchman

Writer | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The son of a Russian émigré clothing merchant, Sidney Buchman was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on March 27 1902. He initially attended the University of Minnesota. After his family moved to New York, he continued his studies at Columbia University, graduating in 1923. The following year, he travelled...

Cleopatra (1963) Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

40. Luciano Vincenzoni

Writer | Sedotta e abbandonata

Luciano Vincenzoni, born in Treviso, March 7, 1926, studied law in Rome and Padua. In 1952, with his friend Tony Roma, he produced "Oliva Incantesimo Tragico", starring María Félix. In 1954, he wrote his first script "Hanno Rubato un Tram", directed by Aldo Fabrizi. In this year, he met 'Pietro ...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Seduced and Abandoned-oscar to Sophia Loren

41. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

42. Alma Reville

Writer | Suspicion

Alma Reville was born on August 14, 1899 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. She was a writer and assistant director, known for Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and The 39 Steps (1935). She was married to Alfred Hitchcock. She died on July 6, 1982 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, ...

43. Frances Marion

Writer | The Big House

The most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century, and one of the most respected scripters of any gender, Frances Marion was born in San Francisco. She modeled and acted and had some success as a commercial artist. She entered into journalism and served in Europe as a combat correspondent ...

44. Leigh Brackett

Writer | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Leigh Douglass Brackett was born in 1915 in Los Angeles. She was the author of numerous short stories and books regarding science fiction and has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera. Hollywood director Howard Hawks was so impressed by one of her novels that he had his secretary call in "...

45. June Mathis

Writer | Greed

June Mathis was born June Beulah Hughes in 1887 in Leadville, Colorado. Her father died at a young age and her mother married William Mathis. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, which she would proudly consider her hometown for the rest of her life.

At the age of 13 she pursued a career in ...

46. Daphne Du Maurier

Writer | The Birds

Daphne Du Maurier was one of the most popular English writers of the 20th Century, when middle-brow genre fiction was accorded a higher level of respect in a more broadly literate age. For her services to literature, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, the ...

47. Thea von Harbou

Writer | Metropolis

Thea von Harbou was born on December 27, 1888 in Tauperlitz, Döhlau, Bavaria, Germany. She was a writer and director, known for Metropolis (1927), M (1931) and Woman in the Moon (1929). She was married to Fritz Lang and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. She died on July 1, 1954 in Berlin, Germany.

48. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Writer | Howards End

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born on May 7, 1927 in Cologne, Germany. She was a writer, known for Howards End (1992), A Room with a View (1985) and The Remains of the Day (1993). She was married to Cyrus Jhabvala. She died on April 3, 2013 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

49. Agatha Christie

Writer | Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie

Agatha was born as "Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller" in 1890 to Frederick Alvah Miller and Clara Boehmer. Agatha was of American and British descent, her father being American and her mother British. Her father was a relatively affluent stockbroker. Agatha received home education from early childhood ...

50. Patricia Highsmith

Writer | The Talented Mr. Ripley

Patricia Highsmith was born on January 19, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. She was a writer, known for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Strangers on a Train (1951) and The Two Faces of January (2014). She died on February 4, 1995 in Locarno, Switzerland.

51. Marguerite Duras

Writer | Le camion

Ms. Duras was born in southern Vietnam and lost her father at age 4. The family savings of 20 years bought the family a small plot in Cambodia, but everything was lost in a single season's flooding. The disaster killed her mother as a result. After high school in Saigon, Ms. Duras left Indochina to...

Hiroshima mon Amour L'Amant Une aussi longue absence

52. Mario Puzo

Writer | The Godfather

Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920, in "Hell's Kitchen" on Manhattan's (NY) West Side and, following military service in World War II, attended New York's New School for Social Research and Columbia University. His best-known novel, "The Godfather," was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels...

53. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...

54. Ken Follett

Writer | Eye of the Needle

Follett's parents belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, a Protestant sect similar to the Baptists. He was forbidden to watch television, radio or cinema. He showed a strong penchant for literature in his early youth, when he read the works of H.G. at the age of seven. Wells and Ian Flamming discovered...

55. Paul Schrader

Writer | First Reformed

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a...

56. Herman J. Mankiewicz

Writer | Citizen Kane

Herman J. Mankiewicz, now known primarily as the man who co-wrote Citizen Kane (1941) with Hollywood's greatest wunderkind, Orson Welles, was one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood and the head of Paramount's screen-writing department in the late 1920s and early '30s. He reached the ...

57. Paddy Chayefsky

Writer | Marty

Author, producer, and composer who earned a Bachelor of Science degree from CCNY, then a Purple Heart during World War II while serving in the US Army. Joining ASCAP in 1955, his chief musical collaborators included George Bassman and Harry Warren. His popular-song compositions include "Marty" and ...

58. Anthony Shaffer

Writer | Sleuth

Anthony Shaffer was born on May 15, 1926 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Sleuth (1972), Frenzy (1972) and The Wicker Man (1973). He was married to Diane Cilento and Carolyn Soley. He died on November 6, 2001 in London, England, UK.

59. Peter Shaffer

Writer | Amadeus

Peter Shaffer was born on May 15, 1926 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Amadeus (1984), Equus (1977) and The Public Eye (1972). He died on June 6, 2016 in County Cork, Ireland.

60. Ennio Flaiano

Writer | 8½

Ennio Flaiano was born on March 5, 1910 in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for 8½ (1963), La Dolce Vita (1960) and Nights of Cabiria (1957). He was married to Rosetta Rota. He died on November 20, 1972 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

61. John Hughes

Writer | Planes, Trains & Automobiles

John Hughes was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He was credited for creating some of the most memorable comedy films of the 1980s and the 1990s, when he was at the height of his career. He had a talent for writing coming-of-age stories, and for depicting fairly realistic...

62. William Inge

Writer | Splendor in the Grass

William (Motter) Inge brought small-town life in the American Midwest to Broadway with four successive dramatic triumphs: "Come Back Little Sheba" (1950), "Picnic" (1953; Pulitzer Prize), "Bus Stop" (1955) and "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1957). With the exception of his Academy ...

63. Henrik Galeen

Writer | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Henrik Galeen was born on January 7, 1881 in Stryj, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. He was a writer and director, known for Nosferatu (1922), The Golem (1914) and A Daughter of Destiny (1928). He was married to Comptess Ilse von Schenk and Elvira Adler. He died on July 30, 1949 in Randolph, Orange County...

64. Arthur Schnitzler

Writer | Eyes Wide Shut

Arthur Schnitzler was born on May 15, 1862 in Vienna, Austrian Empire [now Austria]. He was a writer, known for Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Affairs of Anatol (1921) and The Exposure. He was married to Olga Gussmann. He died on October 21, 1931 in Vienna, Austria.

65. Walter Reisch

Writer | Gaslight

After completing studies in literature at the University of Vienna, Walter Reisch began his screen career as an extra and title writer in 1918. He eventually made the acquaintance of Stephan Lorant, a refuge from the Horty regime in Hungary, who, within a single year, had made a name for himself in...

66. Jean-Claude Carrière

Writer | The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Jean-Claude Carrière was born on September 17, 1931 in Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault, France. He was a writer and actor, known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990). He was married to Nicole Janin and Nahal Tajadod. ...

67. Rod Serling

Writer | The Twilight Zone

A former boxer, paratrooper and general all-around angry young man, Rod Serling was one of the radical new voices that made the "Golden Age" of television. Long before The Twilight Zone (1959), he was known for writing such high-quality scripts as "Patterns" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight," both ...

68. F. Scott Fitzgerald

Writer | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

"There are no second acts in American lives," wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, who himself went from being the high priest of the Jazz Age to a down-and-out alcoholic within the space of 20 years, but not before giving the world several literary masterpieces, the most famous of which is "The Great Gatsby...

69. Theodore Dreiser

Writer | A Place in the Sun

Theodore Dreiser was one of the great American writers, and a transitional figure between Victorian America and the "modern" age that was inaugurated after the cessation of hostilities after WWI and the publication of Sinclair Lewis' "Main Street" in 1920. A naturalist with a committed social ...

70. W. Somerset Maugham

Writer | Quartet

Popular British novelist, playwright, short-story writer and the highest-paid author in the world in the 1930s, Somerset Maugham graduated in 1897 from St. Thomas' Medical School and qualified as a doctor, but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays. During World War I he...

71. Ernest Hemingway

Writer | To Have and Have Not

Ernest Hemingway was an American writer who won the Pulitzer Prize (1953) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1954) for his novel The Old Man and the Sea, which was made into a 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea (1958).

He was born into the hands of his physician father. He was the second of six ...

72. Sinclair Lewis

Writer | Elmer Gantry

Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, was a colossus of American letters in the first half of the last century. Arguably, he is the first major "modern" writer of the 20th century, as there is American literature before "Main Street" (1920) and after that seminal...

73. Vladimir Nabokov

Writer | Lolita

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899, the eldest of five children in a wealthy aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia. His grandfather was a Justice Minister to the Czar Alexander II. His father, named Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was a liberal political leader, the ...

74. Maurice Druon

Writer | Vertigine d'amore

Maurice Druon was born on April 23, 1918 in Paris, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Vertigine d'amore (1949), A Matter of Time (1976) and The Possessors (1958). He was married to Madeleine Merignac. He died on April 14, 2009 in Paris, France.

75. Christopher Hampton

Writer | The Father

Christopher Hampton was born on January 26, 1946 in Faial, Açores, Portugal. He is a writer and producer, known for The Father (2020), Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Atonement (2007). He has been married to Laura de Holesch since 1971. They have two children.

76. Zane Grey

Writer | The Last Duane

Born Pearl Zane Gray on January 31, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio--a town founded by his mother's family--famed western novelist Zane Grey was an athlete and outdoorsman from an early age, with his main interests being fishing and baseball. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball ...

77. Carl Foreman

Writer | The Guns of Navarone

Carl Foreman was born on July 23, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), High Noon (1952) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). He was married to Estelle Barr and Evelyn Smith. He died on June 26, 1984 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, ...

78. Robert Anderson

Writer | I Never Sang for My Father

Robert Anderson was born on April 28, 1917 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for I Never Sang for My Father (1970), The Sand Pebbles (1966) and The Nun's Story (1959). He was married to Teresa Wright and Phyllis Stohl. He died on February 9, 2009 in Manhattan, New ...

79. Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer | Offret

The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...

80. Henry Bataille

Writer | The Private Life of Don Juan

Henry Bataille was born on April 4, 1872 in Nimes, France. He was a writer, known for The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), The Foolish Virgin (1938) and Druga mlodosc (1938). He died on March 2, 1922 in Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

81. Mario Monicelli

Writer | I compagni

Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on November 29, 2010 in Rome, Lazio,...

82. Noël Coward

Writer | In Which We Serve

Noel Coward virtually invented the concept of Englishness for the 20th century. An astounding polymath - dramatist, actor, writer, composer, lyricist, painter, and wit -- he was defined by his Englishness as much as he defined it. He was indeed the first Brit pop star, the first ambassador of "cool...

83. Gene Roddenberry

Writer | Star Trek

While in junior high school, he became interested in science fiction, and years later while reading a copy of 'Astounding Stories' when he was working as an airline pilot, he decided to give it up and become a writer. He moved West and joined the Los Angeles police force to gain experience that ...

84. Gore Vidal

Actor | GATTACA

Gore Vidal was born Eugene Louis Vidal in 1925 in West Point, New York, to Nina (Gore) and West Point aeronautics instructor and aviation pioneer Eugene Luther Vidal. The Vidals endured a rocky marriage divorcing ten years after Gore's birth. Young Gore spent much of his childhood with his blind ...

85. Luis Buñuel

Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...

86. Suso Cecchi D'Amico

Writer | Ladri di biciclette

Suso Cecchi D'Amico was born on July 21, 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was a writer and actress, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Leopard (1963) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960). She was married to Fidele d'Amico. She died on July 31, 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

87. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.

A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...

88. Philip Kaufman

Writer | The Right Stuff

Director and screenwriter Philip Kaufman was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago and later Harvard Law School. He won the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique at Cannes in 1965 for his film Goldstein (1964). He was the screenwriter for The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and was to ...

89. Jules Furthman

Writer | To Have and Have Not

Jules Furthman was a magazine and newspaper writer when he began writing for films in 1915. When the U.S. entered WWI Furthman used the name "Stephen Fox" for his screenplays because he thought his name sounded too German, but he reverted to his real name after the war. Furthman became one of the ...

90. Ferenc Molnár

Writer | Carousel

Ferenc Molnár was born on January 12, 1878 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. He was a writer and actor, known for Carousel, Tales of Manhattan (1942) and I'll Be Yours (1947). He was married to Lili Darvas, Sári Fedák and Margit Vészi. He died on April 1, 1952 in New York City, New York, ...

91. Pasquale Festa Campanile

Writer | Il gattopardo

Pasquale Festa Campanile was born on July 28, 1927 in Melfi, Basilicata, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Leopard (1963), Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Four Days of Naples (1962). He was married to Anna Salvatore. He died on February 25, 1986 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

92. Neil Simon

Writer | The Odd Couple

Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Odd Couple (1968), Murder by Death (1976) and The Goodbye Girl (1977). He was married to Elaine Joyce, Diane Lander, Marsha Mason and Joan Baim. He died on August 26, 2018 in ...

93. James Poe

Writer | Around the World in Eighty Days

James Poe was born on October 4, 1921 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Lilies of the Field (1963). He was married to Barbara Steele. He died on January 24, 1980 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.

94. Claude Sautet

Writer | Un coeur en hiver

Claude Sautet was born on February 23, 1924 in Montrouge, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He was a writer and director, known for A Heart in Winter (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995) and The Things of Life (1970). He was married to Graziella Sautet. He died on July 22, 2000 in Paris, ...

95. Marcel Pagnol

Writer | La fille du puisatier

Marcel Pagnol was born on February 28, 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He was a writer and producer, known for The Well-Digger's Daughter (1940), Jean de Florette (1986) and Le schpountz (1938). He was married to Jacqueline Pagnol and Simone Collin. He died on April 18, 1974 in Paris, ...

96. Kaneto Shindô

Writer | Ichimai no hagaki

Kaneto Shindô was born on April 22, 1912 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Postcard (2010), The Naked Island (1960) and A Last Note (1995). He was married to Nobuko Otowa and Miyo Shindo. He died on May 29, 2012 in Hiroshima, Japan.

97. Gerhart Hauptmann

Writer | Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage

Gerhart Hauptmann was born on November 15, 1862 in Obersalzbrunn, Lower Silesia, Germany [now Szczawno-Zdrój, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a writer and actor, known for Faust (1926), Rose Bernd (1919) and Die Weber (1927). He was married to Margarete Marschalk and Marie Thienemann. He died on June...

98. Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Writer | The Pledge

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was born on January 5, 1921 in Konolfingen, Switzerland. He was a writer and director, known for The Pledge (2001), It Happened in Broad Daylight (1958) and Suspicion (1957). He was married to Charlotte Kerr and Lotti Geißler. He died on December 14, 1990 in Neuchâtel, ...

99. Ken Russell

Director | The Devils

Ken Russell tried several professions before choosing to become a film director; he was a still photographer and a dancer and he even served in the Army, but film was his destiny. He began by making several short films which paved the way for his brilliant television films of the 1960s that are ...

100. Billy Wilder

Writer | The Apartment

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...

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