Joan Harrison (screenwriter)

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Joan Harrison
Born	(1907-06-26)26 June 1907 Guildford, Surrey, England
Died	14 August 1994(1994-08-14) (aged 87) London, England
Occupation	Film producer, screenwriter

Joan Harrison (26 June 1907 – 14 August 1994) was an English film producer and screenwriter.

Biography

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Harrison studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford and reviewed films for the student newspaper. She also studied at the Sorbonne. In 1933 Harrison became the secretary of Alfred Hitchcock. Eventually she began reading books and scripts for him and became one of Hitchcock's most trusted associates.

When Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in March 1939 to begin his contract with David O. Selznick to direct films, Harrison went with him as an assistant and writer.^[1]

She gained the title of screenwriter when she wrote the film Jamaica Inn (1939) based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. Harrison continued writing screenplays for films Rebecca (1940), also adapted from a du Maurier novel, Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Dark Waters (1944), and Nocturne (1946).

Harrison was an uncredited screenwriter for Ride the Pink Horse (1947) and Your Witness (1950). She became a film producer in 1944 with Phantom Lady,^[2] and produced such films as The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), Nocturne (1946), Ride the Pink Horse (1947), and They Won't Believe Me (1947). At the time she was one of only three female producers in Hollywood, the others being Virginia Van Upp and Harriet Parsons.

Harrison worked in television with Hitchcock together with Norman Lloyd when she produced his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She and Lloyd were later producers on the Hammer TV anthology Journey to the Unknown, which ran for a single season in 1968.

Personal life

Harrison married author Eric Ambler in 1958 and remained married to him until her death in 1994.

Award nominations

Year	Result	Award	Category	Film or series	Notes
1941	Nominated	Academy Award	Best Writing, Screenplay	Rebecca	Shared with Robert E. Sherwood
1941	Nominated	Academy Award	Best Writing, Original Screenplay	Foreign Correspondent	Shared with Charles Bennett

References

↑ Grimes, William (24 August 1994). "Joan Harrison, a Screenwriter And Producer, Is Dead at 83". New York Times. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
↑ "The New Pictures, Feb. 28, 1944". Time. 28 February 1944. Retrieved 6 May 2010.

External links

Joan Harrison at the Internet Movie Database

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 100241574 LCCN: no92028195 ISNI: 0000 0001 1856 5745 BNF: cb14050390c

Persondata
Name	Harrison, Joan
Alternative names
Short description	Film producer, screenwriter
Date of birth	26 June 1907
Place of birth	Guildford, Surrey, England
Date of death	14 August 1994
Place of death	London, England

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