Joseph L. Mankiewicz


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Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Born February 11, 1909(1909-02-11)
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
Died February 5, 1993 (aged 83)
Bedford, New York, USA
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Young (1934-1937)
Rose Stradner (1939-1958)
Rosemary Matthews (m. 1962)

Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American Academy Award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer.

Contents

Biography

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to Franz Mankiewicz (?-1941) and Johanna Blumenau, immigrants from Poland.[1] He had a sister, Erna Mankiewicz (1901-1979), and a brother, Herman J. Mankiewicz, a screenwriter.[2][3][4]

Mankiewicz moved with his family to New York City where he graduated in 1924 from Stuyvesant High School.[5] In 1928, he obtained a bachelor's degree from Columbia University. For a time he worked in Berlin, Germany, as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune newspaper before being lured into the motion picture business.

During his long career in Hollywood, Mankiewicz wrote forty-eight screenplays, including All About Eve, for which he won an Academy Award. He also produced more than twenty films including The Philadelphia Story which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941. However, he is best known for the films he directed, twice winning the Academy Award for Directing. In 1944, he produced The Keys of the Kingdom, which starred his wife, Rose Stradner, and Gregory Peck.

In 1958, Mankiewicz directed The Quiet American an adaptation of Graham Greene's 1955 novel about the seed of American military involvement in what would become the Vietnam War. Mankiewicz, under career pressure from the climate of anti-Communism and the Hollywood blacklist, distorted the message of Greene's book, changing major parts of the story to appeal to a national audience. A cautionary tale about America's blind support for "anti-Communists" was turned into, according to Greene, a "propaganda film for America."

He was the younger brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz. His sons are writer/director Tom Mankiewicz and producer Christopher Mankiewicz. He also has a daughter named Alexandra Mankiewicz. His great-nephew is radio & television personality Ben Mankiewicz, currently on TCM.

Mankiewicz, who died in 1993, was interred in Saint Matthew's Episcopal Churchyard cemetery, Bedford, New York.[5]

Director and Screenwriter

Comfortable in a variety of genres and able to elicit career performances from actors and actresses alike, Joseph L. Mankiewicz combined ironic, sophisticated scripts with a precise, sometimes stylised mise en scène. Mankiewicz worked for seventeen years as a screenwriter for Paramount and as a producer for MGM before getting a chance to direct at Twentieth Century-Fox. Over six years he made 11 films for Fox, reaching a peak in 1949 and 1950 when he won consecutive Academy Awards for Screenplay and Direction for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve.

In 1951, Mankiewicz left Fox and moved to New York, intending to write for the Broadway stage. Although this dream never materialised, he continued to make films (both for his own production company Figaro and as a director-for-hire) that explored his favourite themes - the clash of aristocrat with commoner, life as performance and the clash between people's urge to control their fate and the contingencies of real life.

Cleopatra consumed three years of Mankiewicz's life and ended up both derailing his career and causing severe financial losses for the studio, Twentieth Century-Fox. Mankiewicz made more films, however, garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Direction in 1972 for Sleuth starring Laurence Olivier & Michael Caine, his final production.

Filmography

Director

Year Film Oscar nominations Oscar wins
1946 Dragonwyck
Backfire
Somewhere in the Night
1947 The Late George Apley
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1
1948 Escape
1949 A Letter to Three Wives 3 2
House of Strangers
1950 No Way Out 1
All About Eve 14 6
1951 People Will Talk
1952 5 Fingers 2
1953 Julius Caesar 5 1
1954 The Barefoot Contessa 2 1
1955 Guys and Dolls 4
1958 The Quiet American
1959 Suddenly, Last Summer 3
1963 Cleopatra 9 4
1964 Carol for Another Christmas
1967 The Honey Pot
1970 King: a Filmed Record...Montgomery To Memphis 1
There Was a Crooked Man...
1972 Sleuth 4

Screenplays

Further reading

  • Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss: The Cleopatra Papers. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1963.
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Gary Carey: More About 'All About Eve. New York, Random House, 1972.
  • Kenneth L. Geist: Pictures Will Talk: The Life and Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz. New York, Scribners, 1978. ISBN 0-68415-500-1
  • Cheryl Bray Lower: Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Critical Essays and Guide to Resources. Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-78640-987-8
  • Bernard F. Dick: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1983. ISBN 0-80579-291-0

References

  1. ^ "Dr. Frank Mankiewicz", New York Times (December 5, 1941). Retrieved on 2 July 2008. "Mankiewicz, Mr. Frank, dearly beloved husband of Johanna, devoted father of Herman, Joseph, and Mrs. Erna Stenbuck. Services Park West Memorial Chapel, ..." 
  2. ^ "Joseph Mankiewicz Weds. MGM Producer Marries Rose Stradner, Viennese Actress.", New York Times (July 29, 1939). Retrieved on 2 July 2008. "Joseph L. Mankiewicz, motion picture executive, and Rose Stradner, ... the home of the bridegroom's sister, Mrs. Erma Stenbuck, 49 East Ninety-sixth Street. ..." 
  3. ^ "Erna Mankiewicz Stenbuck, 78, Retired New York Schoolteacher", New York Times (August 19, 1979). Retrieved on 2 July 2008. "Erna Mankiewicz Stenbuck, a retired, teacher in the New York City schools, died Aug. 1 in Villach, Austria, where she had lived for several years. She was 78 years old. ... She was married in ... to Dr. Joseph Stenbuck, a New York City surgeon who died in 1951. They had no children. She is survived by a brother, Joseph L. ..." 
  4. ^ "H. J. Mankiewicz, Screenwriter, 56. Winner of Academy Award in 1941 Dies. Playwright Was Former Newspaper Man.", New York Times (March 6, 1953). Retrieved on 2 July 2008. "His brother, Joseph, is a well known screen author, producer and director. ... A sister, Mrs. Erna Stenbuck of New York, also survives." 
  5. ^ a b Flint (1993-02-06). "Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Literate Skeptic of the Cinema, Dies at 83", New York Times. Retrieved on 1 November 2007. "Joseph L. Mankiewicz, a writer, director and producer who was one of Hollywood's most literate and intelligent film makers, died yesterday at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He was 83 and lived in Bedford, N.Y. first=Peter" 

External links

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Joseph L. Mankiewicz
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Academy Award for Best Director

John Ford (1941) · William Wyler (1942) · Michael Curtiz (1943) · Leo McCarey (1944) · Billy Wilder (1945) · William Wyler (1946) · Elia Kazan (1947) · John Huston (1948) · Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949) · Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950) · George Stevens (1951) · John Ford (1952) · Fred Zinnemann (1953) · Elia Kazan (1954) · Delbert Mann (1955) · George Stevens (1956) · David Lean (1957) · Vincente Minnelli (1958) · William Wyler (1959) · Billy Wilder (1960)

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Hosts of the Academy Awards ceremonies

Bob Hope (1941) · Bob Hope (1943) · Jack Benny (1944) · Bob Hope / John Cromwell (1945) · Bob Hope / James Stewart (1946) · Jack Benny (1947) · Robert Montgomery (1949) · Paul Douglas (1950) · Fred Astaire (1951) · Danny Kaye (1952) · Bob Hope / Conrad Nagel (1953) · Donald O'Connor / Fredric March (1954) · Bob Hope / Thelma Ritter (1955) · Jerry Lewis / Claudette Colbert / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1956) · Jerry Lewis / Celeste Holm (1957) · Bob Hope / David Niven / James Stewart / Jack Lemmon / Rosalind Russell (1958) · Bob Hope / David Niven / Tony Randall / Mort Sahl / Laurence Olivier / Jerry Lewis (1959) · Bob Hope (1960)

Complete List · (1929–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)
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Presidents of the Screen Directors Guild and the Directors Guild of America

King Vidor (1936) · Frank Capra (1939) · George Stevens (1941) · Mark Sandrich (1943) · John Cromwell (1944) · George Marshall (1948) · Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950) · George Sidney (1951) · Frank Capra (1960) · George Sidney (1961) · Delbert Mann (1967) · Robert Wise (1971) · Robert Aldrich (1975) · George Schaefer (1979) · Jud Taylor (1981) · Gilbert Cates (1983) · Franklin Schaffner (1987) · Gene Reynolds (1993) · Jack Shea (1997) · Martha Coolidge (2002) · Michael Apted (2003)
v • d • e
Films directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Backfire • Dragonwyck • Somewhere in the Night • The Late George Apley • The Ghost and Mrs. Muir • Escape • A Letter to Three Wives (1949)  • House of Strangers • No Way Out (1950)  • All About Eve (1950)  • People Will Talk • 5 Fingers (1952)  • Julius Caesar (1953)  • The Barefoot Contessa (1954)  • Guys and Dolls (1955)  • The Quiet American • Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)  • Cleopatra (1963)  • The Honey Pot • There Was a Crooked Man... • Sleuth (1972)






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