Person Details

Birthday:

Aliases: Herman Jacob Mankiewicz , Герман Джейкоб Манкевич

Gender: Male

Place of birth: New York City, New York, USA

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 107

TV Involvements: 1


Most Famous Work

Biography

Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953; New York City) was an American screenwriter, who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941). Earlier, he was the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the drama critic for The New York Times and The New Yorker. Alexander Woollcott said that Herman Mankiewicz was the "funniest man in New York". Both Mankiewicz and Welles received Academy Awards for their screenplay. Mankiewicz's younger brother was Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993), an Oscar-winning Hollywood director, screenwriter, and producer. His nephew Tom Mankiewicz (1942 – 2010) was also a screenwriter and director. He was often asked to fix the screenplays of other writers, with much of his work uncredited. Occasional flashes of what came to be called the "Mankiewicz humor" and satire distinguished his films, and became valued in the films of the 1930s. The style of writing included a slick, satirical, and witty humor, which depended almost totally on dialogue to carry the film. It was a style that would become associated with the "typical American film" of that period. Among the screenplays he wrote or worked on, besides "Citizen Kane", were "The Wizard of Oz", "Man of the World", "Dinner at Eight", "Pride of the Yankees", and "The Pride of St. Louis". Film critic Pauline Kael credits Mankiewicz with having written, alone or with others, "about forty of the films I remember best from the twenties and thirties. ... he was a key linking figure in just the kind of movies my friends and I loved best.". Mankiewicz was an alcoholic. Ten years before his death, he wrote: “I seem to become more and more of a rat in a trap of my own construction, a trap that I regularly repair whenever there seems to be danger of some opening that will enable me to escape. I haven’t decided yet about making it bomb proof. It would seem to involve a lot of unnecessary labor and expense". A future Hollywood biographer went so far as to suggest that Mankiewicz’s behavior “made him seem erratic even by the standards of Hollywood drunks.” Herman Mankiewicz died March 5, 1953, of uremic poisoning, at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles.

Most Famous Work

Lux Video Theatre
Average
6

Lux Video Theatre

(1950) Screenplay
The Wizard of Oz
Average
8

The Wizard of Oz

(1939) Staff Writer
Citizen Kane
Average
8

Citizen Kane

(1941) Screenplay
Duck Soup
Average
7

Duck Soup

(1933) Producer
The Pride of the Yankees
Average
7

The Pride of the Yankees

(1942) Screenplay
Monkey Business
Average
7

Monkey Business

(1931) Producer
Horse Feathers
Average
7

Horse Feathers

(1932) Producer
Dinner at Eight
Average
7

Dinner at Eight

(1933) Screenplay

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
1941 Newspaperman (uncredited)
1931 (Undetermined Secondary Role)
1928 Newspaperman
Year Character Movie/Tv

Writing

Year Role Movie/Tv
1989 Writer
1952 Screenplay
1950 Screenplay
1949 Screenplay
1945 Screenplay
Writer
Screenplay
1944 Screenplay
Writer
1943 Screenplay
Writer
1942 Screenplay
Screenplay
Characters
1941 Screenplay
Screenplay
Screenplay
1940 Story
Writer
Staff Writer
1939 Staff Writer
Original Story
1937 Writer
Screenplay
Original Story
Dialogue
Writer
Writer
1936 Writer
Writer
Writer
Adaptation
1935 Writer
Writer
Writer
Screenplay
Screenplay
1934 Screenplay
Writer
Writer
Screenplay
1933 Screenplay
Story
Writer
Screenplay
1932 Adaptation
Dialogue
Writer
1931 Writer
Writer
Screenplay
Story
Adaptation
Adaptation
1930 Adaptation
Writer
Dialogue
Dialogue
Screenplay
Writer
Dialogue
Adaptation
Screenplay
1929 Dialogue
Writer
Writer
Story
Writer
Dialogue
Dialogue
1928 Dialogue
Dialogue
Screenplay
Dialogue
Dialogue
Writer
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Writer
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Writer
Dialogue
1927 Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue
Writer
Writer
Writer
1926 Adaptation
Story
Year Role Movie/Tv

Crew

Year Role Movie/Tv
1976 Thanks
Year Role Movie/Tv

Production


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