Hollywood Comedy Screenwriting Legend Passes
December 3rd, 2003
Hollywood screenwriter Edmund L Hartmann, who wrote zany comedies for Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and the Three Stooges, died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 92.
Hartmann, who died on Friday, also wrote comedies for Abbott and Costello and Lucille Ball, and penned film noir mysteries in a career that spanned more than 60 years.
He once said: I think the unexpected is the key to comedy, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported in its Sunday editions. You can either do it or you cant. It cant be taught.
His Bob Hope scripts were for Paleface (1948), Sorrowful Jones (1949), Fancy Pants (1950) and The Lemon Drop Kid (1951). He wrote The Caddy in 1953 for Martin and Lewis.
His other screenwriting titles include Sherlock Holmes thrillers The Scarlet Claw and Sherlock Holmes in Washington.
As a television writer-producer, Hartmann created My Three Sons for Fred MacMurray, and one of Henry Fondas rare TV series, The Smith Family.
He was a gag writer, but he was a good story man. He could work up a tale that was very involving, said Donald McCaffrey, who wrote a biography of Hartmann called Bound and Gagged in Hollywood.
Hartmann worked at several Hollywood studios but considered his Paramount years the best. He is survived by a daughter and four grandchildren.
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