Charles Brackett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Brackett (November 26, 1892-March 9, 1969) was an accomplished writer, movie screenwriter and movie producer. Born in Saratoga Springs, New York, Charles William Brackett was the son of New York State Senator (Edgar Truman Brackett), Brackett's roots trace back to his Mayflower decendant, Stephen Hopkins.
Brackett was a graduate of Williams College, and received his law degree from Harvard University. He was a frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Post, and a drama critic for The New Yorker from 1925 to 1929.
Brackett wrote four novels: Week-End (1925), The Last Infirmity (1926), The American Colony (1929), and Entirely Surrounded (1934).
Brackett was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 through 1955, for which he received the fifth of his five Academy Awards. His Oscar-winning movies were The Lost Weekend (1945) (screenplay), Sunset Boulevard (1950) (writer), Titanic (1953) (screenplay), and The King and I (1956) (producer). Brackett either wrote, or produced, an additional 39 films during his career.
Brackett worked with Billy Wilder as his collaborator on thirteen movies, including the classic Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Lost Weekend (1945) (writer and producer for both). Brackett and Wilder were teamed together as writers early in their careers. Wilder was the more profane of the two partners, while Brackett held to his upper-crust upbringing and was known as the "gentleman" of the pair. Their social and cultural backgrounds often clashed, but Brackett acknowledged later in his life that Wilder's baser instincts about human nature were invaluable to their collaboration. By the late 1940s, a schism based on personal and creative differences, festering for many years, began to threaten the partnership. However, when Wilder went on to direct movies he continued to collaborate with Brackett, despite the fact that their mutual animosity grew even greater. Brackett and Wilder shared an Oscar for Sunset Boulevard.
