Dorothy Kingsley

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Dorothy Kingsley (born October 14, 1909 in New York City , † September 26, 1997 in Monterey , California ) was an American screenwriter .

Life

Kingsley was born in New York in 1909 as the daughter of silent film actress Alma Hanlon and newspaper reporter and press agent Walter Kingsley . A divorced mother of three, Kingsley began her career in the 1930s as a gag writer for radio shows with Bob Hope and Edgar Bergen . She was then one of the few female authors in her field. In the early 1940s she went to Hollywood to revise the script for Bergen's RKO comedy Look Who's Laughing (1941). Film producer Arthur Freed got her a contract as a screenwriter with MGM in 1943 , where she specialized in film musicals and comedies. She wrote a number of screenplays for films with Esther Williams , including Bathing Venus (1944), Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Jupiter's Favorite (1955).

She was soon known in the film industry for building logical storylines that fully incorporated a large cast. She also often stepped in when a script had to be revised, often without being mentioned in the credits. She did not see herself as an author who wanted to realize herself. According to an interview, she only wrote scripts to make money. She worked particularly often with director George Sidney . She also adapted successful musicals for the big screen, from which films like Kiss me, Katchen! (1953), Pal Joey (1957) and Can-Can (1960). In 1955 she received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for A Bride for Seven Brothers and the Writers Guild of America Award , for which she was nominated several times over the course of her career.

In 1970 Kingsley and her second husband William Durney retired to Carmel-by-the-Sea for many years , where they both founded a winery in 1968 . She briefly stepped out of her retirement in the early 1990s when she proposed to media mogul Ted Turner that she direct a remake of the 1951 baseball film Angels in the Outfield , for which she once wrote the screenplay. In 1994 the project was called Angels - Angels Really Exist! realized.

Kingsley died of heart failure in 1997 at the age of 87 at Community Hospital in Monterey , California. She had six children in all; Michael Durney, Christine Durney Armanasco, Terry Kingsley-Smith and Susan Durney Mickelson as well as Dennis and Steven Durney, who died before their mother.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

  • 1949: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for On an Island with You
  • 1952: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Angels in the Outfield
  • 1954: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Kiss Me, Katchen!
  • 1955: Writers Guild of America Award for One Bride for Seven Brothers
  • 1955: Nomination for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for A Bride for Seven Brothers
  • 1958: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Pal Joey
  • 1958: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Don't Get Too Close to the Water
  • 1958: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Can-Can

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Mel Gussow: Dorothy Kingsley, 87, Writer Of 1950's MGM Screenplays . In: The New York Times , October 3, 1997.
  2. ↑ a b Dorothy Kingsley in the All Movie Guide (English)
  3. ↑ Myrna Oliver: Dorothy Kingsley; Prolific screenwriter . In: Los Angeles Times , September 30, 1997.
personal data
SURNAME Kingsley, Dorothy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 1997
Place of death Monterey , California