Horace McCoy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horace McCoy (born April 14, 1897 in Pegram , Tennessee , † December 15, 1955 in Beverly Hills , California ) was an American writer and screenwriter .

Life

Horace McCoy was best known for his novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (English title: Only horses are given the coup de grace ) from 1935, which was filmed in 1969 by Sydney Pollack with Jane Fonda and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. Many of Horace McCoy's novels are set during the Great Depression .

McCoy described his parents as "rich in books and poor in money." He attended school in Nashville , left it at 16 and worked as a mechanic, traveling salesman and taxi driver (including in the red light district of New Orleans). During the First World War , McCoy served in the US Air Force as a bomber pilot and reconnaissance photographer on the Western Front , was wounded and was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government .

From 1919 to 1930 he worked as a sports journalist and later as an editor for the Dallas Journal newspaper in Texas . At the end of the 1920s he began to publish his first short stories in various pulp magazines . During the Great Depression , McCoy moved to Los Angeles and tried his hand at acting . He starred in a few less successful Hollywood films and had to get by with odd jobs. McCoy's experiences from this time should inspire his most famous works: he worked for a while as a bouncer in a pier bar in Santa Monica , which later led him to his first novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They, about a dance marathon in one should inspire such a place. His novel I Should Have Stayed Home (1938) reflects his unsuccessful attempts to break through as an actor in Hollywood. The main character in his novel No Pocket In A Shroud (1937, German title: The last shirt has no pockets ) is a courageous, misunderstood reporter , also with clearly autobiographical traits.

Much more successful than his acting career was his screenwriting career in Hollywood. From 1931 until his death, Horace McCoy wrote the scripts for numerous westerns , crime novels and melodramas , some of which were filmed by well-known directors such as Henry Hathaway , Raoul Walsh or Nicholas Ray . In 1948 McCoy published his black series crime film Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (German title: Shadows of the Past ), which two years later under the same name (German distribution title: Tomorrow you will not experience ) with James Cagney in the role of the amoral gangster Ralph Cotter was made into a film. In 1933 Horace McCoy probably also worked on the screenplay of King Kong , but is not mentioned in the credits of the film.

Horace McCoy's alcoholism made writing increasingly difficult for him. His last literary works are the novels Scalpel (1952, German title: Scalpel ) and Corruption City (only published posthumously in 1959, German title: Stadt in Angst ). He was married three times, first in 1921 with Loline Sherer (one son, Stanley), in third in 1933 with Helen Vinmont (two children, Amanda and Peter). Horace McCoy died of a heart attack in 1955 .

Works

  • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? , 1935.
  • No Pockets in a Shroud , 1937.
  • I Should Have Stayed Home , 1938.
  • Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye , 1948.
  • Scalpel , 1952.
  • Corruption City , 1959.

Filmography (selection)

Literary template
script
  • 1936: Fighting in the Mountains ( The Trail of Lonesome Pine )
  • 1938: Dangerous accomplices ( Dangerous to Know )
  • 1941: Escape to Texas ( Texas )
  • 1942: The Cheeky Cavalier ( Gentleman Jim )
  • 1942: Death Valley ( Valley of the Sun )
  • 1948: Burning border ( The Fabulous Texan )
  • 1950: Roller-Skating Fever ( The Fireball )
  • 1952: Bronco Buster
  • 1952: The most beautiful of Montana ( Montana Belle )
  • 1952: Storm voyage to Alaska ( The World in His Arms )
  • 1952: The Lusty Men
  • 1954: Blood in the Snow ( Dangerous Mission )
  • 1955: The Devil's Right Hand ( Texas Lady )
  • 1955: The City of Dead Souls ( Rage at Dawn )
  • 1955: Post robbery in Central City ( Road to Denver )

literature

  • John Thomas Sturak: The Life and Writings of Horace McCoy, 1897–1955 (unpublished dissertation), University of California, Los Angeles, USA, 1966
  • Mark Roydon Winchell: Horace McCoy (Western Writers Series) , Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, USA, 1982.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME McCoy, Horace
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American novelist and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Pegram , Tennessee, USA
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1955
Place of death Beverly Hills , California , USA