Moss Hart

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Moss Hart, US Postal Service (2004)

Moss Hart (born October 24, 1904 in New York City , New York , † December 20, 1961 in Palm Springs , California ) was one of the most famous American writers , screenwriters and playwrights of the 20th century .

Life

Moss Hart grew up in poor conditions. He wrote his first play at the age of 12 and performed it with great enthusiasm by his relatives from the Bronx . Shortly before his 15th birthday, he had to drop out of school to support his family financially by working in a clothing factory. On the side, Hart led a small theater company in the Bronx and Newark . In the 1930s, Moss Hart had his first successes as a playwright, together with George Simon Kaufman , who in turn was only successful with co-authors. A number of other plays followed, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for You Can't Take It With You . In addition to his work as a playwright, Hart also staged scripts for theater and film by other writers. In 1941 he wrote the film script A New Star in the Sky , which six years earlier had been responsible for the film script of Elia Kazan's Oscar- winning film Tabu der Righte (1947). He received a prize of 100,000 US dollars and work undisturbed a house in Palm Springs, California. It was largely based on the 1937 script version by Dorothy Parker , Alan Campbell and Robert Carson . The musical My Fair Lady (1956) with Julie Andrews as the cheeky flower seller Eliza Doolittle becomes one of the most successful stage plays on Broadway . Mosshart to the young actress for two days have drilled straight to her songs, the movements and the Cockney - dialect to teach.

family

On August 10, 1946, Moss Hart married in New York City the actress Kitty Carlisle (actually Catherine Conn , 1910-2007). The marriage had two children: Christopher (* 1948), theater producer, and Catherine (* 1950), physicist . Moss Hart died of a heart attack in Palm Springs on December 20, 1961 and was buried in Hartsdale, New York.

Prior to his marriage, friends and tabloids claimed that Moss Hart was homosexual and that he had been in therapy for years because of it. He wrote the following lines for the bisexual actor Danny Kaye , in his role in the play Hans Christian Anderson :

"You would be surprised how many kings kept a queen with a mustache."

- Quotation in the play Hans Christian Andersen

Works (selection)

Collaboration with George Simon Kaufman

  • 1930 Once in a Lifetime
  • 1934 Merrily We Roll Along
  • 1936 You Can't Take It With You (Eng. You only live once. Comedy in three acts ; also: Rejoice in life. Comedy in 3 acts )
  • 1937 I'd Rather Be Right
  • 1939 The Man Who Came to Dinner (German guest of honor )
  • 1940 George Washington Slept Here (Eng. Washington slept here or We're moving to the country. Comedy in three acts )

Plays

  • 1941 Lady in the Dark (dt. Lady in the dark. A dramato musical = The Lady in the Dark )
  • 1943 Winged Victory
  • 1948 Light Up the Sky

Filmography

script

Literary template

idea

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Steven Bach: Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart , Random House Inc, pp 1, 13, 268 (2001) ISBN 0-6794-4154-9
  2. ↑ Donald Spoto: Laurence Olivier: A Biography , New York: HarperCollins (1992) ISBN 0-0601-8315-2
  3. ↑ Michelangelo Capua: Vivien Leigh: A Biography , McFarland & Company (2003) ISBN 0-7864-1497-9
  4. ^ Martin Gottfried: Nobody's Fool: The Lives of Danny Kaye , Simon & Schuster (1994) ISBN 0-6718-6494-7
personal data
SURNAME Hard, Moss
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1961
Place of death Palm Springs , California , United States