Daniel Taradash
Daniel Taradash | |
---|---|
Born | (1913-01-29)January 29, 1913 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | February 22, 2003(2003-02-22) (aged 90) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Spouse | Madeleine Forbes (1945–2003) |
Awards | Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 1953 From Here to Eternity |
Daniel Taradash (January 29, 1913 – February 22, 2003) was an American screenwriter.
Taradash's credits include Golden Boy (1939), Rancho Notorious (1952), Don't Bother to Knock (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), Désirée (1954), Picnic (1955), Storm Center (1956), which he also directed, Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Morituri (1965), Hawaii (1966), Castle Keep (1969), Doctors' Wives (1971), and Bogie (1980), a film biography of Humphrey Bogart.
Early years
Daniel Taradash was born to a Jewish family[1] in Kentucky and raised in Chicago and Miami Beach. He attended Harvard University, where he met his future producing partner Jules Blaustein. He graduated with a law degree and passed the New York State bar. But when his play The Mercy won the 1938 Bureau of New Plays contest (the two previous winners were Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams), a career in theater was launched. He moved to Hollywood, where he worked as a scripter. His first assignment was as one of four credited writers on the screen version of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy (1939).
His theater career was interrupted when, during World War II, Taradash served in the U.S. Army. He eventually underwent training in the Signal Corps Officer Candidate program. He was assigned to the Signal Corps Photo Center, where he worked as a writer and producer on training films.[2]
Post World War II career
After the war, Taradash attempted to find success on Broadway with an American version of Jean-Paul Sartre's Red Gloves, but the show folded quickly and he returned to Hollywood. He had more success as the co-writer (with John Monks Jr) of the Humphrey Bogart vehicle Knock on Any Door (1949). The Fritz Lang Western Rancho Notorious and the psychodrama Don't Bother to Knock (both 1952). Performers included Marlene Dietrich and Arthur Kennedy in the former, Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe in the latter. His adaptation of James Jones' massive novel From Here to Eternity (1953) starring Burt Lancaster was a big success and earned Taradash an Oscar. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann. His subsequent film work was generally in adaptations, including Desiree (1954), about Napoleon and Joséphine; Picnic (1955), from the William Inge play; and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), from John Van Druten's stage comedy.
In the mid-1950s, Taradash and Jules Blaustein formed Phoenix Corporation. He also tried his hand at directing with Storm Center (1956), starring Bette Davis as a librarian fighting censorship and book banning. Taradash and Zinnemann had planned to make two films from James Michener's massive novel Hawaii but were unable to raise the financing. When George Roy Hill did make the film in 1965, he utilized Taradash's script with emendations by Dalton Trumbo. By the 1970s, Taradash's efforts produced his final two scripts for the soap operas Doctors' Wives (1971) and The Other Side of Midnight (1977).
Taradash won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama for From Here to Eternity, and he received a WGA nomination for Picnic.
Taradash served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1970 to 1973. He was AMPAS's 20th president. In 1972, he introduced Charlie Chaplin at Chaplin's appearance at the 44th Academy Awards and presented him with an honorary award.
In 2003, Taradash died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles at age 90.
Achievements
- 1938 - Passed New York bar exam
- 1938 - Won the Bureau of New Plays nationwide playwrighting contest previously won by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams
- 1939 - First feature credit as one of four credited screenwriters on the film adaptation of Golden Boy
- 1941 - Served in the US Army
- 1948 - Debut as a Broadway playwright, Red Gloves, adapted from the work by Jean-Paul Sartre
- 1949 - Breakthrough screen credit as co-writer of Knock on Any Door
- 1953 - Earned Academy Award for his screenplay for From Here to Eternity, adapted from the James Jones novel
- 1956 - Adapted William Inge's Picnic
- 1956 - Directorial debut, Storm Center (also wrote)
- 1958 - Wrote the screenplay adaptation of Bell, Book and Candle
- 1959 - Made one-shot return to Broadway as playwright of There Was a Little Girl, starring Jane Fonda
- 1966 - Received co-writer credit on Hawaii; originally he and director Fred Zinnemann had hoped to make two films based on the James Michener novel but financing could not be raised
- 1971 - Scripted Doctors Wives
- 1977 - Final screenplay credit, The Other Side of Midnight[3]
- 1996 - Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement
Sources
- ^ Erens, Patricia (August 1988). The Jew in American Cinema. Indiana University Press. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-253-20493-6.
- ^ WGAW President, 1977-1979: Daniel Taradash Writers Guild of America West. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
- ^ Yahoo Movies Daniel Taradash biography https://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d-hc&id-1800034078&cf-biog&intl-us
External links
- Daniel Taradash at IMDb
Non-profit organization positions | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | President of Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences 1970–1973 | Succeeded by |
- v
- t
- e
- Benjamin Glazer (1928)
- Hanns Kräly (1929)
- Frances Marion (1930)
- Howard Estabrook (1931)
- Edwin J. Burke (1932)
- Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason (1933)
- Robert Riskin (1934)
- Dudley Nichols (1935)
- Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (1936)
- Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and Norman Reilly Raine (1937)
- Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Arthur Lewis, W. P. Lipscomb, and George Bernard Shaw (1938)
- Sidney Howard (1939)
- Donald Ogden Stewart (1940)
- Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller (1941)
- George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, and Arthur Wimperis (1942)
- Philip G. Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, and Howard Koch (1943)
- Frank Butler and Frank Cavett (1944)
- Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder (1945)
- Robert Sherwood (1946)
- George Seaton (1947)
- John Huston (1948)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950)
- Harry Brown and Michael Wilson (1951)
- Charles Schnee (1952)
- Daniel Taradash (1953)
- George Seaton (1954)
- Paddy Chayefsky (1955)
- John Farrow, S. J. Perelman, and James Poe (1956)
- Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (1957)
- Alan Jay Lerner (1958)
- Neil Paterson (1959)
- Richard Brooks (1960)
- Abby Mann (1961)
- Horton Foote (1962)
- John Osborne (1963)
- Edward Anhalt (1964)
- Robert Bolt (1965)
- Robert Bolt (1966)
- Stirling Silliphant (1967)
- James Goldman (1968)
- Waldo Salt (1969)
- Ring Lardner Jr. (1970)
- Ernest Tidyman (1971)
- Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo (1972)
- William Peter Blatty (1973)
- Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo (1974)
- Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben (1975)
- William Goldman (1976)
- Alvin Sargent (1977)
- Oliver Stone (1978)
- Robert Benton (1979)
- Alvin Sargent (1980)
- Ernest Thompson (1981)
- Costa-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart (1982)
- James L. Brooks (1983)
- Peter Shaffer (1984)
- Kurt Luedtke (1985)
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1986)
- Bernardo Bertolucci and Mark Peploe (1987)
- Christopher Hampton (1988)
- Alfred Uhry (1989)
- Michael Blake (1990)
- Ted Tally (1991)
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1992)
- Steven Zaillian (1993)
- Eric Roth (1994)
- Emma Thompson (1995)
- Billy Bob Thornton (1996)
- Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland (1997)
- Bill Condon (1998)
- John Irving (1999)
- Stephen Gaghan (2000)
- Akiva Goldsman (2001)
- Ronald Harwood (2002)
- Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh (2003)
- Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (2004)
- Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (2005)
- William Monahan (2006)
- Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (2007)
- Simon Beaufoy (2008)
- Geoffrey S. Fletcher (2009)
- Aaron Sorkin (2010)
- Alexander Payne, Jim Rash, and Nat Faxon (2011)
- Chris Terrio (2012)
- John Ridley (2013)
- Graham Moore (2014)
- Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (2015)
- Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (2016)
- James Ivory (2017)
- Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee (2018)
- Taika Waititi (2019)
- Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller (2020)
- Sian Heder (2021)
- Sarah Polley (2022)
- Cord Jefferson (2023)