American screenwriter and film producer (1892–1969)
Charles William Brackett
Brackett in 1942
Born (1892-11-26 ) November 26, 1892Died March 9, 1969(1969-03-09) (aged 76) Alma mater
Williams College Occupation(s) Screenwriter, producer Years active 1925–1962 Spouses
Elizabeth Fletcher
(
m. 1919; died 1948)
Lillian Fletcher
(
m. 1953)
Children 2
Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He collaborated with
Billy Wilder on sixteen films.
Life and career
Brackett was born in
Saratoga Springs, New York , the son of Mary Emma Corliss and New York State Senator, lawyer, and banker
Edgar Truman Brackett . The family's roots traced back to the arrival of Richard Brackett in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629, near present-day
Springfield, Massachusetts . His mother's uncle,
George Henry Corliss , built the
Centennial Engine that powered the 1876
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A 1915 graduate of
Williams College , he earned his law degree from
Harvard University . He joined the
Allied Expeditionary Force during
World War I , and was awarded the French Medal of Honor.
He was a frequent contributor to the
Saturday Evening Post ,
Collier's , and
Vanity Fair , and a drama critic for
The New Yorker . He wrote five novels: The Counsel of the Ungodly (1920), Week-End (1925), That Last Infirmity (1926), American Colony (1929),
[1] and Entirely Surrounded (1934).
Brackett was a president of the
Screen Writers Guild (1938–1939) and for the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1949–1955). He either wrote and/or produced over forty films, including
To Each His Own ,
Ninotchka ,
The Major and the Minor ,
The Mating Season (1951),
Niagara ,
The King and I ,
Ten North Frederick ,
The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker and
Blue Denim .
Beginning in August 1936, Brackett worked with Billy Wilder, writing the film classics
The Lost Weekend and
Sunset Boulevard , both of which won
Academy Awards for their respective screenplays. Brackett described their collaboration process as follows: "The thing to do was suggest an idea, have it torn apart and despised. In a few days it would be apt to turn up, slightly changed, as Wilder's idea. Once I got adjusted to that way of working, our lives were simpler."
[2]
His partnership with Wilder ended in 1950 and Brackett went to work at
20th Century-Fox as a screenwriter and producer. His script for
Titanic (1953) won him another Academy Award.
He received an
Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1958.
Brackett died on March 9, 1969.
[3] His diaries covering his screenwriting and social life from 1932 to 1949 were edited by Anthony Slide into Slide's book It's the Pictures That Got Small: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age .
Personal life
Brackett married Elizabeth Barrows Fletcher, a descendant of
Stephen Hopkins of the
Mayflower , on June 2, 1919. They had two daughters, Alexandra Corliss Brackett, Mrs. Larmore (1920–1965) and Elizabeth Fletcher Brackett (1922–1997). His wife died on June 7, 1948. In 1953, Brackett married Lillian Fletcher, the sister of his first wife. They had no children.
[4]
Brackett was a
Republican who voted for
Alf Landon in 1936 and supported
Barry Goldwater in the
1964 United States presidential election .
[5]
Works
Partial filmography
Tomorrow's Love (1925) – based on a story Interlocutory
Risky Business (1926) – based on a story Pearls Before Cecily
Pointed Heels (1929) – based on a story [
citation needed ]
Secrets of a Secretary (1931) – based on a story
[6]
College Scandal (1935) – writer
Without Regret (1935) – writer
The Last Outpost (1935) – writer
Rose of the Rancho (1936) – writer
Woman Trap (1936) – writer
Piccadilly Jim (1936) – writer
Live, Love and Learn (1937) – writer
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)* – writer
What a Life (1939)* – writer
Ninotchka (1939)* – writer
Arise, My Love (1940)* – writer
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)* – writer
Ball of Fire (1941)* – writer
The Major and the Minor (1942)* – writer
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)* – writer, producer
The Uninvited (1944) – producer
The Lost Weekend (1945)* – producer, writer
To Each His Own (1946) – writer, producer
The Bishop's Wife (1947) – uncredited writer
A Foreign Affair (1948)* – writer, producer
The Emperor Waltz (1948)* – writer, producer
Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) – writer, producer
Sunset Boulevard (1950)* – writer, producer
Edge of Doom (1950) – writer (uncredited)
The Mating Season (1951) – writer, producer
The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951) – writer, producer
Niagara (1953) – writer, producer
Titanic (1953) – writer, producer
Woman's World (1954) – producer
Garden of Evil (1954) – producer
The Virgin Queen (1955) – producer
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) – writer, producer
Teenage Rebel (1956) – writer, producer
The King and I (1956) – producer
D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) – producer
The Wayward Bus (1957) – producer
The Gift of Love (1958) – producer
Ten North Frederick (1958) – producer
The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959) – producer
Blue Denim (1959) – producer
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) – writer, producer
High Time (1960) – producer
State Fair (1962) – producer
("*" indicates collaboration with Wilder)
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
References
^ See Drewey Wayne Gunn, Gay American Novels, 1870–1970: A Reader's Guide (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2016), 21-22.
^ Brackett, Charles, It's the Pictures That Got Small, Columbia University Press, 2015, pg. 92
^
"Charles Brackett Dies at 77; Made Oscar-Winning Movies. 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'The Lost Weekend' and 'Titanic' among his successes" .
The New York Times . March 10, 1969. Retrieved January 2, 2011 .
^ Hopper, H. (December 27, 1953). "Charlie Brackett marries sister of his first wife". Los Angeles Times .
ProQuest
166556164 .
^ Critchlow, Donald T. (October 21, 2013).
When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics .
ISBN
978-1-107-65028-2 .
^
"Secrets of a Secretary" . AFI Catalog of Featured Films . Retrieved November 16, 2020 .
External links
Awards for Charles Brackett
1940–1975
Preston Sturges (1940)
Herman J. Mankiewicz and
Orson Welles (1941)
Michael Kanin and
Ring Lardner Jr. (1942)
Norman Krasna (1943)
Lamar Trotti (1944)
Richard Schweizer (1945)
Muriel Box and
Sydney Box (1946)
Sidney Sheldon (1947)
No award (1948)
Robert Pirosh (1949)
Charles Brackett ,
D. M. Marshman Jr. , and
Billy Wilder (1950)
Alan Jay Lerner (1951)
T. E. B. Clarke (1952)
Charles Brackett ,
Richard L. Breen , and
Walter Reisch (1953)
Budd Schulberg (1954)
Sonya Levien and
William Ludwig (1955)
Albert Lamorisse (1956)
George Wells (1957)
Nathan E. Douglas and
Harold Jacob Smith (1958)
Clarence Greene ,
Maurice Richlin ,
Russell Rouse , and
Stanley Shapiro (1959)
I. A. L. Diamond and
Billy Wilder (1960)
William Inge (1961)
Ennio de Concini ,
Pietro Germi , and
Alfredo Giannetti (1962)
James Webb (1963)
S. H. Barnett,
Peter Stone and
Frank Tarloff (1964)
Frederic Raphael (1965)
Claude Lelouch and
Pierre Uytterhoeven (1966)
William Rose (1967)
Mel Brooks (1968)
William Goldman (1969)
Francis Ford Coppola and
Edmund H. North (1970)
Paddy Chayefsky (1971)
Jeremy Larner (1972)
David S. Ward (1973)
Robert Towne (1974)
Frank Pierson (1975)
1976–2000 2001–present
1928–1950
Benjamin Glazer (1928)
Hanns Kräly (1929)
Frances Marion (1930)
Howard Estabrook (1931)
Edwin J. Burke (1932)
Victor Heerman and
Sarah Y. Mason (1933)
Robert Riskin (1934)
Dudley Nichols (1935)
Pierre Collings and
Sheridan Gibney (1936)
Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and
Norman Reilly Raine (1937)
Ian Dalrymple ,
Cecil Arthur Lewis ,
W. P. Lipscomb , and
George Bernard Shaw (1938)
Sidney Howard (1939)
Donald Ogden Stewart (1940)
Sidney Buchman and
Seton I. Miller (1941)
George Froeschel ,
James Hilton ,
Claudine West , and
Arthur Wimperis (1942)
Philip G. Epstein ,
Julius J. Epstein , and
Howard Koch (1943)
Frank Butler and
Frank Cavett (1944)
Charles Brackett and
Billy Wilder (1945)
Robert Sherwood (1946)
George Seaton (1947)
John Huston (1948)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950)
1951–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
1928–1950
Warner Bros. /
Charlie Chaplin (1928)
Walt Disney (1932)
Shirley Temple (1934)
D. W. Griffith (1935)
The March of Time /
W. Howard Greene and
Harold Rosson (1936)
Edgar Bergen /
W. Howard Greene /
Museum of Modern Art Film Library /
Mack Sennett (1937)
J. Arthur Ball /
Walt Disney /
Deanna Durbin and
Mickey Rooney /
Gordon Jennings ,
Jan Domela , Devereaux Jennings, Irmin Roberts, Art Smith,
Farciot Edouart ,
Loyal Griggs ,
Loren L. Ryder , Harry D. Mills,
Louis Mesenkop , Walter Oberst /
Oliver T. Marsh and Allen Davey /
Harry Warner (1938)
Douglas Fairbanks /
Judy Garland /
William Cameron Menzies /
Motion Picture Relief Fund (
Jean Hersholt ,
Ralph Morgan ,
Ralph Block ,
Conrad Nagel )/
Technicolor Company (1939)
Bob Hope /
Nathan Levinson (1940)
Walt Disney ,
William Garity , John N. A. Hawkins, and the
RCA Manufacturing Company /
Leopold Stokowski and his associates / Rey Scott /
British Ministry of Information (1941)
Charles Boyer /
Noël Coward /
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1942)
George Pal (1943)
Bob Hope /
Margaret O'Brien (1944)
Republic Studio,
Daniel J. Bloomberg , and the Republic Studio Sound Department /
Walter Wanger /
The House I Live In /
Peggy Ann Garner (1945)
Harold Russell /
Laurence Olivier /
Ernst Lubitsch /
Claude Jarman Jr. (1946)
James Baskett /
Thomas Armat ,
William Nicholas Selig ,
Albert E. Smith , and
George Kirke Spoor /
Bill and Coo /
Shoeshine (1947)
Walter Wanger /
Monsieur Vincent /
Sid Grauman /
Adolph Zukor (1948)
Jean Hersholt /
Fred Astaire /
Cecil B. DeMille /
The Bicycle Thief (1949)
Louis B. Mayer /
George Murphy /
The Walls of Malapaga (1950)
1951–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
International National People Other