Frances Marion

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Frances Marion

Frances Marion (November 18, 1888 - May 12, 1973) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century.

Born Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco, California, she worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during World War I. On her return home, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired as a writing assistant by "Lois Weber Productions", a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber.

As "Frances Marion," she wrote many scripts for actress/filmmaker Mary Pickford, including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The Poor Little Rich Girl, as well as scripts for numerous other successful films of the 1920s and 1930s. She became the first female to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1930 for the film The Big House, she received the Academy Award for Best Story for The Champ in 1932. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films. She directed and occasionally appeared in some of Mary Pickford's early movies.

For many years she was under contract to MGM Studios but independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing stage plays and novels.

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[edit] Marriage

She was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe, and later to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed Fred Thomson, who co-starred with Mary Pickford in The Love Light in 1921. After Thomson's unexpected death in 1928, she married director George W. Hill in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933.

Frances Marion died in 1973.

[edit] Biography

In 1997, author Cari Beauchamp published her biography under the title Without Lying Down: Frances Marion And The Power Of Women In Hollywood. A New York Times "Notable Book." In 2000, with support from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the book was made into a television documentary with the same title and aired on Turner Classic Movies.

[edit] Selected Screenplays

[edit] Books by Marion Frances

  • Minnie Flynn (1925)
  • Valley People (1935)
  • How to Write and Sell Film Stories (1937)
  • Molly, Bless Her (1937)
  • Westward The Dream (1948)
  • The Powder Keg (1953)

[edit] External Links

[edit] References

  • Beauchamp, C. Marion, Frances. American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000.
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