Ernest Lehman, renowned screenwriter, dead at 89
July 6th, 2005
This is a sad day, just in from the AP wire, Ernest Lehman, a six-time Oscar nominee whose screenwriting and production credits include such classics as "North by Northwest," "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music," has died. He was 89. He will be missed.
Lehman died Saturday at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center from an undisclosed illness, according to a statement posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Born and raised in New York City, Ernest Lehman worked as a publicity writer for The Hollywood Reporter columnist Irving Hoffman and utilized his experience in scripting Alexander Mackendrick's "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957). Though the screenplay bears the stamp of Lehman's co-writer Clifford Odets, this dark and cruel tale originated as a story published by Lehman in Cosmopolitan (1951). This and other stories, one of which became Allan Dwan's "The Inside Story" (1948), brought him to the attention of Hollywood, where he settled in 1953. He received four Academy Award nominations for screenwriting — for "North by Northwest (search)," "West Side Story (search)," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (search)" and "Sabrina" — and two Oscar nominations as a producer, for "Hello, Dolly!" and "Virginia Woolf."
Among Lehman's other screenwriting credits are "Sweet Smell of Success," "The King and I," "From the Terrace," "The Prize," "Hello, Dolly!," "Portnoy's Complaint" and "Black Sunday."
Lehman, who received five Writers Guild of America awards and nine WGA nominations, received the guild's prestigious Screen Laurel Award in 1972.
In 2001, he became the first screenwriter to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Upon accepting his honorary Oscar in 2001, Lehman told the audience:
"I accept this rarest of honors on behalf of screenwriters everywhere, but especially those in the Writers Guild of America. We have suffered anonymity far too often. I appeal to all movie critics and feature writers to please always bear in mind that a film production begins and ends with a screenplay."
Born in New York, Lehman studied creative writing at City College of New York before working as a copywriter for a Broadway theater publicist, an experience he tapped in writing his novella and the screenplay for "Sweet Smell of Success."
He sold his first story, "Double-Cross," to Liberty magazine in 1943 and spent the next 10 years writing stories, novellas and radio comedy, and editing a financial magazine. After his short story "The Comedian" appeared in Collier's in 1953, he was brought to Hollywood by Paramount.
Lehman is survived by his wife, Laurie; their son, Jonathan; and his sons Roger and Alan, from his late first wife, Jackie; and two grandchildren.
Lehman died Saturday at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center from an undisclosed illness, according to a statement posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Born and raised in New York City, Ernest Lehman worked as a publicity writer for The Hollywood Reporter columnist Irving Hoffman and utilized his experience in scripting Alexander Mackendrick's "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957). Though the screenplay bears the stamp of Lehman's co-writer Clifford Odets, this dark and cruel tale originated as a story published by Lehman in Cosmopolitan (1951). This and other stories, one of which became Allan Dwan's "The Inside Story" (1948), brought him to the attention of Hollywood, where he settled in 1953. He received four Academy Award nominations for screenwriting — for "North by Northwest (search)," "West Side Story (search)," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (search)" and "Sabrina" — and two Oscar nominations as a producer, for "Hello, Dolly!" and "Virginia Woolf."
Among Lehman's other screenwriting credits are "Sweet Smell of Success," "The King and I," "From the Terrace," "The Prize," "Hello, Dolly!," "Portnoy's Complaint" and "Black Sunday."
Lehman, who received five Writers Guild of America awards and nine WGA nominations, received the guild's prestigious Screen Laurel Award in 1972.
In 2001, he became the first screenwriter to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Upon accepting his honorary Oscar in 2001, Lehman told the audience:
"I accept this rarest of honors on behalf of screenwriters everywhere, but especially those in the Writers Guild of America. We have suffered anonymity far too often. I appeal to all movie critics and feature writers to please always bear in mind that a film production begins and ends with a screenplay."
Born in New York, Lehman studied creative writing at City College of New York before working as a copywriter for a Broadway theater publicist, an experience he tapped in writing his novella and the screenplay for "Sweet Smell of Success."
He sold his first story, "Double-Cross," to Liberty magazine in 1943 and spent the next 10 years writing stories, novellas and radio comedy, and editing a financial magazine. After his short story "The Comedian" appeared in Collier's in 1953, he was brought to Hollywood by Paramount.
Lehman is survived by his wife, Laurie; their son, Jonathan; and his sons Roger and Alan, from his late first wife, Jackie; and two grandchildren.
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