George Wells (screenwriter)
George Wells | |
---|---|
![]() Wells at the 30th Academy Awards in 1958 | |
Born | (1909-11-08)November 8, 1909 New York City |
Died | November 27, 2000(2000-11-27) (aged 91) Newport Beach, California, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Writer, screenwriter |
Years active | 1946–1973 |
George Wells (November 8, 1909 – November 27, 2000) was an American screenwriter and producer, best known for making light comedies and musicals for MGM.
Biography
Wells was the son of vaudevillian Billy K. Wells. He studied at New York University, then worked as a writer on radio on programs such as The Jack Pearl Show and Lux Radio Theatre.
Wells joined MGM as a screenwriter in 1943. He stayed there until 1970 when he retired.[1]
His first credit was for The Show-Off (1946), a Red Skelton film. He wrote Good Old Summertime, a biopic of George Evans for Arthur Freed to star Frank Sinatra but it was not made.[2]
He worked on the all-star musical Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) and the Clark Gable comedy The Hucksters (1947). He wrote Merton of the Movies (1947), another movie for Skelton.
Wells' work on Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) earned him a Writers Guild Award nomination. He did uncredited work on The Stratton Story (1949) then focused on musicals: Three Little Words (1950), The Toast of New Orleans (1950), Summer Stock (1951), Excuse My Dust (1951), Texas Carnival (1951) and Lovely to Look At (1952).
He also worked on Angels in the Outfield (1951) and It's a Big Country (1952).
Producer
Wells became a producer with Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). He also produced I Love Melvin (1953) and Dangerous When Wet (1953). In April 1954, he signed a new contract with MGM and produced Jupiter's Darling (1955).[3] This was a big flop and Wells' next film as producer, My Intimate Friend (to star Lana Turner and Ava Gardner), was never made.[4]
Wells went back to being a writer only.
Later career
Wells had a big hit with Don't Go Near the Water (1957). His work on Designing Woman (1957) earned him an Oscar.
Party Girl (1958) was a change of pace, a film noir. After that Wells focused on comedies: Ask Any Girl (1959), The Gazebo (1959), Where the Boys Are (1960), The Honeymoon Machine (1961), The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), Penelope (1966), Three Bites of the Apple (1967), and The Impossible Years (1968).
He wrote an adaptation of Rip Van Winkle for George Pal in 1967 but it was never made.[5]
He left MGM in 1970 and wrote Cover Me Babe (1970) and the TV movie The Fabulous Doctor Fable (1973).
In 1982 he published the novel Taurus.
He died at Newport Beach on November 27, 2000. His first wife Ruth died in 1987. He was survived by his second wife Mary, two children, and three grandchildren.
Awards
With co-writer Harry Tugend, Wells was nominated for the 1950 Writers Guild of America Award in the category of Best Written American Musical for Take Me Out to the Ball Game. They lost to Betty Comden and Adolph Green, for On the Town. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Designing Woman.[citation needed]
Select filmography
Screenwriter
- The Show-Off (1946)
- Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
- The Hucksters (1947)
- Merton of the Movies (1947)
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
- The Stratton Story (1949) – uncredited
- Three Little Words (1950)
- The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
- Summer Stock (1950)
- Angels in the Outfield (1951)
- Excuse My Dust (1951)
- Texas Carnival (1951) – story
- It's a Big Country (1951)
- Lovely to Look At (1952)
- Everything I Have Is Yours (1952)
- I Love Melvin (1953)
- Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
- Designing Woman (1957)
- Party Girl (1958)
- Ask Any Girl (1959)
- The Gazebo (1959)
- Where the Boys Are (1960)
- The Honeymoon Machine (1961)
- The Horizontal Lieutenant (1961)
- Penelope (1966)
- Three Bites of the Apple (1967)
- The Impossible Years (1968)
- Cover Me Babe (1970)
- The Fabulous Doctor Fable (1973) (TV movie)
Producer
- Everything I Have Is Yours (1952)
- I Love Melvin (1953)
- Dangerous When Wet (1953)
- Jupiter's Darling (1955)
References
- ^ "George Wells; Won Oscar for 'Designing Woman'". Los Angeles Times. December 7, 2000.
- ^ "M-G-M PLANS TO DO FILM ON MINSPREL". New York Times. August 31, 1946. ProQuest 107718975.
- ^ "MOVIELAND BRIEFS". Los Angeles Times. April 20, 1954. p. B7.
- ^ Schallert, E. (October 2, 1954). "'Magic fire' swinging into high, great jazz festival put on slate". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 166679998.
- ^ Martin, Betty (November 16, 1966). "MOVIE CALL SHEET: No 'Mr. Chips' for Burton". Los Angeles Times. p. e18.
External links
- George Wells at IMDb
- Obituary at Los Angeles Times
- Obituary at New York Times
- v
- t
- e
- Preston Sturges (1940)
- Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles (1941)
- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr. (1942)
- Norman Krasna (1943)
- Lamar Trotti (1944)
- Richard Schweizer (1945)
- Muriel Box and Sydney Box (1946)
- Sidney Sheldon (1947)
- No award (1948)
- Robert Pirosh (1949)
- Charles Brackett, D. M. Marshman Jr., and Billy Wilder (1950)
- Alan Jay Lerner (1951)
- T. E. B. Clarke (1952)
- Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen, and Walter Reisch (1953)
- Budd Schulberg (1954)
- Sonya Levien and William Ludwig (1955)
- Albert Lamorisse (1956)
- George Wells (1957)
- Nathan E. Douglas and Harold Jacob Smith (1958)
- Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse, and Stanley Shapiro (1959)
- I. A. L. Diamond and Billy Wilder (1960)
- William Inge (1961)
- Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi, and Alfredo Giannetti (1962)
- James Webb (1963)
- S. H. Barnett, Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff (1964)
- Frederic Raphael (1965)
- Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven (1966)
- William Rose (1967)
- Mel Brooks (1968)
- William Goldman (1969)
- Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North (1970)
- Paddy Chayefsky (1971)
- Jeremy Larner (1972)
- David S. Ward (1973)
- Robert Towne (1974)
- Frank Pierson (1975)
- Paddy Chayefsky (1976)
- Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman (1977)
- Robert C. Jones, Waldo Salt, and Nancy Dowd (1978)
- Steve Tesich (1979)
- Bo Goldman (1980)
- Colin Welland (1981)
- John Briley (1982)
- Horton Foote (1983)
- Robert Benton (1984)
- William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, and Earl W. Wallace (1985)
- Woody Allen (1986)
- John Patrick Shanley (1987)
- Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow (1988)
- Tom Schulman (1989)
- Bruce Joel Rubin (1990)
- Callie Khouri (1991)
- Neil Jordan (1992)
- Jane Campion (1993)
- Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary (1994)
- Christopher McQuarrie (1995)
- Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (1996)
- Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (1997)
- Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (1998)
- Alan Ball (1999)
- Cameron Crowe (2000)
- Julian Fellowes (2001)
- Pedro Almodóvar (2002)
- Sofia Coppola (2003)
- Pierre Bismuth, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman (2004)
- Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco (2005)
- Michael Arndt (2006)
- Diablo Cody (2007)
- Dustin Lance Black (2008)
- Mark Boal (2009)
- David Seidler (2010)
- Woody Allen (2011)
- Quentin Tarantino (2012)
- Spike Jonze (2013)
- Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., and Armando Bo (2014)
- Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (2015)
- Kenneth Lonergan (2016)
- Jordan Peele (2017)
- Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly (2018)
- Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won (2019)
- Emerald Fennell (2020)
- Kenneth Branagh (2021)
- Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (2022)
- Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (2023)