William Anthony McGuire

William Anthony McGuire (born July 9, 1881 in Chicago , Illinois , † September 16, 1940 in Beverly Hills , Los Angeles County , California ) was an American playwright and screenwriter who was nominated for an Oscar for best original story .

Life

McGuire first worked as a playwright on Broadway and wrote his first play with the stage work The Heights , which premiered on Broadway in early 1910 . A short time later, he also began his work as a screenwriter in the Hollywood film industry and initially wrote the scenarios for silent films such as the short film The Devil, the Servant and the Man (1912) by Frank Beal with Kathlyn Williams , William Stowell and Charles Clary . In addition to his work in the film industry, he also created other plays for Broadway in the 1920s, where he also worked with personalities such as Victor Herbert , Otto Harbach and Will Rogers . His piece The Nervous Wreck provided the basis for the musical Whoopee! Which premiered in 1928 . as well as the 1930 film Whoopee! by Thornton Freeland .

At the Academy Awards in 1937 McGuire was nominated for the Oscar for the best original screenplay, namely for the musical film Der große Ziegfeld (The Great Ziegfeld, 1936) by Robert Z. Leonard with William Powell in the title role as Florenz Ziegfeld junior as well as Luise Rainer and Myrna Loy in other leading roles.