A most prolific and accomplished screenwriter, perhaps the most prolific in Hollywood history. The Internet Movie Database lists 142 films to his credit. However, one must not forget that Hecht kept on his private payroll a collection of writers who often did ghost writing for him. But it cannot be doubted, the man most likely did writing on countless other movies for which he never received credit! Interestingly enough he claimed to hate Hollywood and all it stood for, yet had no trouble cashing the checks. He made as much as $1000 a day to write, and the year was 1931 -- obviously he could not resist the lure of "easy money." Ben Hecht was raised in Racine, Wisconsin, and as a young man moved to Chicago, where he became a reporter and, eventually, a short-story writer and novelist. He traveled in literary circles that eventually landed him in New York, where he met young movie mogul David O. Selznick; the two were to be lifelong friends and frequent collaborators (although Hecht's contributions to Selznick's films, such as his intertitles for "Gone With the Wind" often went uncredited, and are disputed.)

Former journalist and playwright ("The Front Page", "Twentieth Century") who entered films in 1927. Alone or in collaboration (often with Charles MacArthur), Hecht quickly turned out the witty, well-plotted scripts for some of Hollywood's most acclaimed films of the 1930s and 40s in every genre from screwball comedies to crime thrillers. His prolific (and highly-paid) output includes the cynical comedy classic "Nothing Sacred" (1937), the superb adaptation of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" (1939), and Hitchcock's "Notorious" (1946), which has at its center one of filmdom's most compelling villains.

Hecht also worked uncredited on numerous classic scripts including "Back Street" (1932), "Topaze", "Queen Christina" (both 1933), "The Hurricane" (1937), "Gone With the Wind" (1939), "Foreign Correspondent", "The Shop Around the Corner" (both 1940), "Gilda" (1946), and "Roman Holiday" (1953) and directed a number of films, none of which were particularly successful. In the late 1940s, due to his outspoken criticism of English policy in Palestine, his name was removed from any of his films shown in British theaters.

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