Jesse L. Lasky, Jr.
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Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. was an American screenwriter.
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[edit] Family
Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. was the son of the famous film pioneer, Jesse L. Lasky, who produced the first full-length motion picture in Hollywood in 1913 and founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, which became Paramount Pictures. Jesse Jr. was born on Broadway in 1910 and grew up in Hollywood, New York City, England, and France. His mother Bessie was a concert pianist gold medallist of the Boston Conservatory of Music as well as a well known painter who painted all the California Missions (now in the L.A. County Art Museum), and was the author of 3 books.
[edit] Education
Jesse attended Blair Academy, the Hun School of Princeton, and the University of Dijon, France, where he received a degree in literature. After winning awards for poetry at the age of 17, he began writing professionally.
[edit] Career
Lasky wrote 8 novels, 3 books of verse, 5 plays and over 50 screenplays including 8 for the legendary Cecil B. DeMille. Jesse received the Box Office Award twice ("The Ten Commandments" and "Samson And Delilah") and the Christopher Award from the Catholic Church. His writing took him from Hollywood to London, Rome, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France.
[edit] World War II
During World War II, Lasky served as a Captain commanding Combat Photographic Units of the Signal Corps in 4 campaigns in the Southwest Pacific, and was decorated by General MacArthur. He organised the Army School of Film Training at the Signal Corps Photographic Centre where writers were trained to script training films for every branch of the Military Service.
[edit] Post-War
Returning from 3 and a half years of overseas duty, Lasky resumed his writing career with books, plays, and films. Jesse lectured on creative writing and Hollywood history at many universities in the United States and England, including The Oxford Union. He also served as Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, Screen Branch.
In 1962, he and his wife, Pat Silver, moved to London. They also lived part of the year in Southern Spain, and travelled extensively. Jesse was a member of The Garrick Club and The Company of Military Historians.
Lasky died on 11th April, 1988. Pat now continues to write under the pen name: Pat Silver-Lasky.
[edit] Autobiography
Lasky was painted by Tsuguharu Foujita at the age of 17, during a trip to Paris with his mother, Bessie Lasky. A copy of this picture appears on page 180 in Jesse L. Lasky Jr.'s autobiography, Whatever Happened To Hollywood? (published by Funk & Wagnalls, NY 1975)
[edit] Filmography
- 1934 Music is Magic
- 1935 The White Parade
- 1935 Coming Out Party
- 1936 Land Of Liberty
- 1938 Union Pacific
- 1940 Northwest Mounted Police
- 1940 Back in the Saddle
- 1941 Steel Against the Sky
- 1941 The Singing Hills
- 1941 Reap the Wild Wind
- 1942 Omaha Trail
- 1946 The Valpariso Story
- 1946 Unconquered
- 1948 Thief of Venice
- 1948 Samson & Delilah
- 1949 Sicle & the Cross
- 1950 Lorna Doone (Edward Small)
- 1950 Mask of the Avengers
- 1950 Never Trust a Gambler
- 1951 The Brigand
- 1952 Solome
- 1952 The Silver Whip
- 1953 The Iron Glove
- 1953 Mission Over Korea
- 1954 Hell and High Water
- 1955 Pearl of the South Pacific
- 1955 Hot Blood
- 1955 The Ten Commandments
- 1958 The Buccaneer
- 1959 John Paul Jones
- 1959 On My Honor
- 1959? The Red Head
- 1960 Wizard of Baghdad
- 1960 7 Women from Hell
- 1960 Pirates of Tortuga
- 1969 Land Raiders
- 1970 One of Those Things
- 1976 Crime and Passion
- 1980? Bull Dance (Yugoslavia)
