Jules Furthman | |
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Jules Furthman and actor William Russell in 1919
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Born |
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
March 5, 1888
Died | September 22, 1966 Oxford, England, UK |
(aged 78)
Cause of death | Cerebral hemorrhage |
Occupation | Screenwriter, director and producer |
Years active | 1915–1959 |
Spouse(s) |
Sybil Seely (m. 1920-1966; his death); 1 child |
Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was a magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter.
Born in Chicago, he was the brother of writer Charles Furthman. During World War I Jules wrote under the pen name "Stephen Fox" as he thought Furthman sounded too German. He wrote screenplays for a number of important or popular films, including: The Docks of New York (1928), Thunderbolt (1929), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Bombshell (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Come and Get It (1936), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946) and Nightmare Alley (1947). He wrote credited screenplays for eight films directed by Josef Von Sternberg and an equal number for Howard Hawks.
When he's brought up on the UK television program Scene By Scene, host Mark Cousins says, "Furthman wrote some of your best lines and he also wrote for her (Marlene Deitrich), those sort of, sexy and ambiguous lines." Lauren Bacall replies, "He did? Well, that I didn't know. I asked Howard Hawks once, why he used Furthman; as he didn't write the entire screenplay. And he (Hawks) said, 'If there are five ways to play a scene, he (Furthman) will write a sixth way.' And of course, that makes perfect sense and that's exactly what Furthman did. He always cam around the back way and suddenly there was a little surprise there."
He was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Mutiny on the Bounty.