Samuel A. Taylor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samuel Taylor (June 13, 1912–May 26, 2000) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
He was best known for writing the play Sabrina Fair in 1953 and co-writing its successful film adaptation Sabrina the following year. In 1955, he won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay. His early success brought him more work in Hollywood, including the 1956 biographical film, The Eddy Duchin Story and the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo in 1958.
His career faded in film after the initial box office failure of Vertigo, though Hitchcock and Taylor remained frequent collaborators. Taylor did an uncredited rewrite of the screenplay for Psycho -- due to Hitchcock's disatisfaction with Joseph Stefano's screenplay -- and wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's 1969 film Topaz. He was often contracted to write drafts for Hitchcock's other films, such as Torn Curtain, though Topaz was the only Taylor-penned screenplay to be produced after Vertigo and Psycho.
Taylor was nominated for his only Tony Award in 1962 as co-producer of the play No Strings. He also wrote the play Avanti! in 1968, which was adapted into a successful film in 1972, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. The last Taylor play to be produced on Broadway was 1976's Legend.
His credits are sometimes confused with those of novelist and screenwriter Samuel W. Taylor.
