Garson Kanin

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Garson Kanin (right) with Spencer Tracy. Photo from 1942.

Garson Kanin (born November 24, 1912 in Rochester (New York) , †  March 13, 1999 in New York ) was an American screenwriter. He has also worked as a stage actor, as a writer of Broadway plays and as a stage and film director.

Live and act

Kanin, who was called by his friends "Jasper," collapsed during the Great Depression , the High School off to his family as a musician to support and later as a comedian. In 1932/33 he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. He then worked for a short time on Broadway as an actor and then gained an assistantship with Broadway director George Abbott . In 1937 he went to Hollywood . After a brief stint at MGM , Kanin switched to RKO Pictures . At RKO, Kanin directed seven films until 1941, of which the love comedy Die Findelmutter from 1939, starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven , was one of the financially most successful productions. Occasionally he also wrote screenplays, but he was not mentioned as an author in the film titles.

Under the terms of the studio system , Kanin had little control over his films and became increasingly frustrated with it. During the Second World War he directed several documentary films for the American military authorities, of which The True Glory won an Oscar in 1945 . Kanin co-wrote an unnamed screenplay for Columbia Pictures for the successful romantic comedy Always More, Always Happy from 1943 with Jean Arthur .

After the end of the war Kanin also began to write plays for Broadway, in which he often directed himself until 1974 - as well as in plays by other authors. In 1947 he also began working as a freelancer to write scripts for various film companies, the most successful of which were the marriage war with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn from 1949 and Die ist nicht von Yesterday in 1950 with Judy Holliday . George Cukor directed both films . For the screenplay for Die ist nicht der Yesterday , which is based on his own play, Kanin received a fee of $ 1 million from Columbia Pictures for the film rights.

Garson Kanin was married to actress and writer Ruth Gordon since 1942 . After her death in 1985 Kanin married the stage actress Marian Seldes in 1990 . Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon were close friends with Katharine Hepburn and later also with Spencer Tracy and together they wrote the scripts for their films Ehekrieg and Pat and Mike .

Garson Kanin's brother Michael Kanin was also a screenwriter.

Filmography (selection)

script
Director

Plays by Garson Kanin

  • 1946: Born Yesterday
  • 1949: The Smile of the World
  • 1949: The Rat Race
  • 1950: The Live Wire
  • 1960: Thu Re Wed
  • 1962: A gift of time. A drama in two acts, adapted from Death of a man by Lael Tuckerwertebaker .
  • 1962: Come on Strong

Awards and nominations

Film awards
  • 1946: Oscar for best documentary for The True Glory (1945)
  • 1948: Oscar nomination for A Double Life (1947)
  • 1950: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America WGA Award for Marital War (1949)
  • 1951: Oscar nomination for Marital War (1949)
  • 1951: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America WGA Award for Marital War (1949)
  • 1953: Oscar nomination for Pat and Mike (1952)
  • 1953: WGA Award nomination from the Writers Guild of America for Pat and Mike (1952)
  • 1953: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America's WGA Award for Happy Ending ... so what's next? (1952)
  • 1955: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America WGA Award for The Incredible Story of Gladys Glover (1954)
  • 1989: Valentine Davies Award from the Writers Guild of America
Stage prices
  • 1956: Tony Award nomination for directing The Diary of Anne Frank
  • 1961: Nomination for the Tony Award for writing and directing in Do Re Wed

literature

Publications by Garson Kanin:

  • Cast of Characters: Stories of Broadway and Hollywood , Atheneum, 1969
  • Hollywood , Viking Adult, 1974. ISBN 0670375756
  • A thousand summers , Doubleday, 1973. ISBN 0385069731 (novel)
  • Tracy and Hepburn. An Intimate Memoir , Viking Penguin, 1971

Biography:

  • American National Biography. Supplement 1, pp. 307-308. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kanin, Garson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Rochester
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1999
Place of death New York City