Charles Lederer
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Charles Davies Lederer (December 31, 1906–March 5, 1976) was an American film writer and director.
He was the son of actress Reine Davies (sister of actress Marion Davies) and prominent Broadway producer George W. Lederer. His first wife was Virginia Welles, formerly married to the actor-director Orson Welles director of Citizen Kane, partly based on the life of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies. Lederer's second wife was actress Anne Shirley.
In 1954, he won three Tony Awards for the Broadway Musical Kismet, as Best Producer (Musical), as Best Author (Musical) with Luther Davis, and as co-author of the book who, with several collaborators, contributed to the Best Musical win.
He penned the screenplay for the classic 1951 science-fiction/horror film The Thing from Another World, directed by Howard Hawks and co-wrote the original 1960's Ocean's Eleven. Lederer wrote or co-wrote screenplays (notably with Ben Hecht) for Howard Hawks's production of His Girl Friday and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the Lewis Milestone remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando.
With Ben Hecht, he co-wrote the original Kiss of Death which was to feature the actor Richard Widmark's chilling debut as the psychopathic killer with a giggle. In addition, he directed the 1959 film Never Steal Anything Small, an adaptation of a play by Maxwell Anderson and Rouben Mamoulian, starring James Cagney. Lederer was valued as a Hollywood screenwriter. He was also a member of another circle of writers, on the East Coast, which included Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, Howard Dietz, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and the editor Harold Ross. These writers were to become the nucleus of the Algonquin Round Table.
As Marion Davies's nephew, he grew up as a Hollywood habitue, spending much time at San Simeon, the "enchanted castle on the hill", where his aunt reigned as William Randolph Hearst's chatelaine. Having being admitted to UC Berkeley at the age of 13, he dropped out at the age of 16 and worked for a Hearst newspaper before moving back to Hollywood as a screenwriter. He was one of the major contributors to the film genre known as "screwball comedy".
Lederer was famed on both coasts as a sardonic wit and a perpetrator of wicked practical jokes. Bennett Cerf's book Shake Well Before Using describes an incident during Lederer's career in the Army during World War Two, when Lederer wreaked revenge on an Englishwoman who had been making rude remarks against Jews. (Lederer was Jewish but did not look Semitic.) Lederer was also great friends with Marx Brother Harpo Marx and the two constantly cooked up practical jokes at the balls and parties they attended at the estate of William Randolph Hearst such as stealing all the female guests' fur coats and draping them over the statues outside the estate during a heavy snowstorm.
Lederer's father was the pioneering Broadway producer, George W. Lederer. Born in 1861 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he joined a touring opera company as a 13 year old boy soprano. At the age of 17 1/2, he collaborated with the producer Thomas Canary and leased the Casino Theater in New York City. In 1897, he produced the musical The Belle of New York which was to become the first American musical to travel to England and was to run for over two years there. He was one of the first producers of "revues" in the US when, together with Sydney Rosenfeld, he presented the Passing Show of 1894. Another show which he produced was the all black musical In Dahomey with music by Will Marion Cook and lyrics by the poet Paul Dunbar and starring the prominent black vaudeville team of Bert Williams and George Walker. Crossing the Atlantic, it played for seven months and received a Royal Command Performance at Buckingham Palace. The cakewalk dance, a highlight of the show, became the rage of the town. George W. Lederer died in 1938.
