Dwight Taylor (writer)

Dwight Taylor
Born Dwight Bixby Taylor
January 1, 1902
New York, United States
Died December 31, 1986 (aged 84)
Occupation Playwright
Screenwriter
Author
Journalist
Years active 1928-1967
Spouse(s) Natalie Visart
Children Daughters: Audrey, Laurel
Son: Andy
Parent(s) Mother: Laurette Taylor
Father: Charles A. Taylor
Stepfather: J. Hartley Manners

Dwight Taylor (born January 1, 1902, in New York, United States, died December 31, 1986, Woodland Hills, California) was an American author, playwright, and film and television screenwriter.[1][2][3][4]

Background

Taylor was the son of playwright Charles A. Taylor and actress Laurette Taylor, and attended Lawrenceville School in Lawrence Township, New Jersey where he began drawing and painting and wrote a book of poetry.[3]

After refusing an opportunity to work as a cub reporter for The New York World, he began his career as a journalist for The New Yorker magazine, serving as one of the first editors for their "Talk of the Town". He began screenwriting for Hollywood films in 1930 and for television in 1953. His first produced play was Don't Tell George[5] (1928). Other plays included such as Lipstick[6] and Gay Divorce.

Taylor's first screenplay was Jailbreak. First National Pictures bought the project in 1929 while it was still in manuscript form and had Alfred A. Cohn[7] and Henry McCarty adapt it to become the 1930 film Numbered Men starring Conrad Nagel and Bernice Claire.

Gay Divorce was adapted into a Broadway musical by Cole Porter. In 1934 RKO Studios, which renamed it The Gay Divorcee to appease the censors, filmed it with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.[2]

He was a founding member, and had served one term as president, of the Writers Guild of America, West.[1]

On December 31, 1986, one day short of his 84th birthday, Taylor died of a heart attack at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California where he had resided since 1981.[1]

Filmography

Film

Television

  • The Loretta Young Show (1 episode, 1953), "Trial Run"
  • Schlitz Playhouse (1 episode, 1957), "The Girl in the Grass" (1957)
  • The Thin Man (2 episodes, 1957), "Fatal Cliche", "Angels in Paradise"
  • 77 Sunset Strip (1 episode, 1959), "A Check Will Do Nicely"
  • Batman (1 episode, 1967), "Louie, the Lilac"

Theatre

Bibliography

  • Some Pierrots Come from Behind the Moon (1923) (Poetry)[14][15]
  • Joy Ride (1959) (novel)[4][16]
  • What Sank the Dreamboat[4][17][18]
  • Blood and Thunder (1962) (novel)[1][4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Tim Page (January 6, 1987). "Dwight Taylor Dies; Playwright, Author, and Screenwriter". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Playwright Dwigfht Taylor DIes". API (Lewiston Journal). January 5, 1987. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Screenwriter Dwight Taylor; wrote top films for Astaire". UPI (The Vindicator). January 3, 1987. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Dwight Taylor; Wrote Screenplays, Novels". Los Angeles Times. January 3, 1987. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Boston on the wire". The New York Times. July 22, 1928.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "lans of Brady and Wiman; "Lipstick," by Dwight Taylor, and Weigall Dramatization Added". The New York Times. July 31, 1929.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Louella O. Parsons (December 24, 1929). "Lillian Gish Lauds Ann Harding's Work". Rochester Evening Journal And The Post Express (Google News Archive). Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  8. ↑ "Jo Mielziner's design contract". New York Public Library. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  9. ↑ "To Give Play in Vanderlip Theatre". The New York Times. April 14, 1929.
  10. ↑ James Agate (1972). Immoment Toys. Ayer Publishing. pp. 8, 98. ISBN 0-405-08189-8.
  11. ↑ F.S.N. (July 13, 1935). "Paris in Spring (1935)". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  12. ↑ "Theatre: New Play in Manhattan". Time. November 28, 1938. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  13. ↑ Dwight Taylor. Billie: a play in three acts (in Bilie).
  14. ↑ Ernst Hofer (1924). The lariat 3. p. 149.
  15. ↑ Bookfellows (1923). Flora Warren (Smith) Seymour, ed. The Step ladder, Volumes 7-8. The Bookfellows. p. 114.
  16. ↑ Dwight Taylor (1959). Joy Ride. Putnam.
  17. ↑ A. B. bookman's weekly 79. AB Bookman Publications. 1987. p. 297.
  18. ↑ Jay Robert Nash (1987). The Motion Picture Guide 1987 Annual: The Films of 1986. The motion picture guide. Cinebooks. p. 366. ISBN 0-933997-15-9.

External links