Ben Hecht
Age: 70 | From: New York City, New York, USA
Person Details
Birthday: 1894-02-28 23:27:03
Death: 1964-04-18 23:27:03
Aliases: No known aliases
Gender: Male
Place of birth: New York City, New York, USA
Homepage:
Movie Involvements: 156
TV Involvements: 0
Most Famous Work
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ben Hecht (/hɛkt/; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write thirty-five books and some of the most entertaining screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films. At the age of 16, Hecht ran away to Chicago, where, in his own words, he "haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls, and bookshops". In the 1910s and early 1920s, Hecht became a noted journalist, foreign correspondent, and literary figure. In the 1920s, his co-authored, reporter-themed play, The Front Page, became a Broadway hit. The Dictionary of Literary Biography - American Screenwriters calls him "one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictures". Hecht received the first Academy Award for Original Screenplay for Underworld (1927). Many of the screenplays he worked on are now considered classics. He also provided story ideas for such films as Stagecoach (1939). Film historian Richard Corliss called him "the Hollywood screenwriter", someone who "personified Hollywood itself". In 1940, he wrote, produced, and directed Angels Over Broadway, which was nominated for Best Screenplay. In total, six of his movie screenplays were nominated for Academy Awards, with two winning. He became an active Zionist shortly before the Holocaust began in Germany, and wrote articles and plays about the plight of European Jews, such as We Will Never Die in 1943 and A Flag is Born in 1946. Of his seventy to ninety screenplays, he wrote many anonymously to avoid the British boycott of his work in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The boycott was a response to Hecht's active support of paramilitary action against British forces in Palestine and sabotaging British property there (see below), during which time a supply ship to Palestine was named the S. S. Ben Hecht. According to his autobiography, he never spent more than eight weeks on a script. In 1983, 19 years after his death, Ben Hecht was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Most Famous Work
The Shop Around the Corner
(1940) Additional Writing
Scarface
(1932) Screenplay
The Front Page
(1974) Theatre Play
Casino Royale
(1967) Screenplay
Stagecoach
(1939) Writer
Notorious
(1946) Writer
Rope
(1948) Writer
Ulysses
(1954) ScreenplayActing
| Year | Character | Movie/Tv |
|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Narrator (segment "Woman of Sin") (voice) | |
| 1940 | Man in Night Court (uncredited) | |
| 1935 | Flop House Bum | |
| 1934 | Court Interviewer with Pipe (uncredited) | |
| Year | Character | Movie/Tv |
Writing
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Original Film Writer | |
| 1988 | Writer | |
| 1986 | Novel | |
| 1983 | Original Film Writer | |
| 1974 | Theatre Play | |
| 1969 | Novel | |
| 1964 | Screenplay | |
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| 1962 | Theatre Play | |
| 1960 | Screenplay | |
| 1958 | Story | |
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| 1957 | Writer | |
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| 1956 | Screenplay | |
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| Novel | ||
| 1955 | Screenplay | |
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| 1954 | Screenplay | |
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| 1952 | Screenplay | |
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| 1951 | Writer | |
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| 1946 | Writer | |
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| 1945 | Writer | |
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| 1942 | Screenplay | |
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| 1941 | Screenplay | |
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| 1940 | Screenplay | |
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| 1939 | Writer | |
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| 1938 | Writer | |
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| 1937 | Screenplay | |
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| 1936 | Writer | |
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| 1934 | Writer | |
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| 1933 | Screenplay | |
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| 1932 | Writer | |
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| 1931 | Writer | |
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| 1930 | Story | |
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| 1929 | Story | |
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| 1928 | Story | |
| 1927 | Story | |
| 1926 | Writer | |
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
Directing
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Director | |
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| 1949 | Director | |
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| 1948 | Director | |
| 1946 | Director | |
| 1940 | Director | |
| 1936 | Director | |
| 1935 | Director | |
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| 1934 | Director | |
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
Crew
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Additional Writing | |
| 1947 | Additional Dialogue | |
| 1946 | Additional Writing | |
| 1940 | Additional Writing | |
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| 1937 | Additional Writing | |
| 1933 | Additional Writing | |
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
Production
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |
|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Producer | |
| 1942 | Producer | |
| 1940 | Producer | |
| 1936 | Producer | |
| 1935 | Producer | |
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| 1934 | Producer | |
| Year | Role | Movie/Tv |