Donald Ogden Stewart

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Donald Ogden Stewart
Born(1894-11-30)November 30, 1894
DiedAugust 2, 1980(1980-08-02) (aged 85)
London, England
Spouse(s)Beatrice Ames (1924–1938)
Ella Winter (1939–1980)
AwardsAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1940 The Philadelphia Story

Donald Ogden Stewart (November 30, 1894 – August 2, 1980) was an American writer and screenwriter best known for his sophisticated golden age comedies and melodramas such as The Philadelphia Story (based on the play by Philip Barry), Tarnished Lady and Love Affair. Stewart worked with a number of the directors of his time, including George Cukor (a frequent collaborator), Michael Curtiz and Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart was a member of the Algonquin Round Table and, with Ernest Hemingway's friend Bill Smith, the model for Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises. His 1922 parody on etiquette, Perfect Behavior, published by George H. Doran and Co., was a favourite book of P. G. Wodehouse.[1]

Life and career

His hometown was Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Yale University, where he became a brother to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter), in 1916 and served in the naval reserves in World War I.

After the war he started to write, and found success with A Parody Outline of History, a

George H. Doran. It was a send up of the ugly American
tourist.

He became interested in adapting some of his plays to film, but on first entering

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[2]
His 1975 memoir is entitled By a Stroke of Luck.

Stewart died in London in 1980. His widow died three days later. Stewart had two sons from a previous marriage.[1][3]

Film portrayal

Stewart was portrayed by the actor and playwright David Gow in the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.[4]

Partial filmography

As a writer

As an actor

  • Holiday (1928) – Nick Potter
  • Humorous Flights (1929) – Donald Ogden Stewart
  • Night Club (1929/I)
  • Not So Dumb (1930) – Skylar Van Dyke/Horace Patterson

Journalism

  • "The Love Life of Jimmy Durante", Photoplay, August 1932, p. 58.

References

  1. ^ a b "Donald O. Stewart, Screenwriter, Dies. Writer of Screenplay for the Movie 'Philadelphia Story' Was Also Well Known for Parodies 'I Want to Have Bite' Shared Oscar With Trumbo Alumnus of Exeter and Yale". The New York Times. August 3, 1980. Retrieved 2008-04-18. Donald Ogden Stewart, a parodist, playwright and politically committed screenwriter who enjoyed a large reputation from 1920 to 1950, died yesterday afternoon at his home in London after an illness that followed a heart attack. He was 85 years old.
  2. ^ "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest". January 30, 1968. New York Post
  3. ^ Cook, Joan (August 5, 1980). "Ella Winter Stewart, Journalist and Widow Of Donald O. Stewart; Was War Correspondent Back After 17 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-18. Ella Winter Stewart, a journalist and the widow of Donald Ogden Stewart, who died Saturday, died of a stroke early today at her home in Hamstead, London. She was 82 years old.
  4. ^ Internet Movie Database entry for Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
  5. ^ Kapsis, Robert E., ed. Woody Allen: Interviews (revised and updated). University Press of Mississippi, 2016, xxxiii

External links