 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Donald Ogden Stewart" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Donald Ogden Stewart | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Born | (1894-11-30)November 30, 1894 |
| Died | August 2, 1980(1980-08-02) (aged 85) London, England |
| Spouses | |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 1940The Philadelphia Story |
Donald Ogden Stewart (November 30, 1894 – August 2, 1980) was an American writer andscreenwriter best known for his sophisticatedgolden age comedies andmelodramas, such asThe Philadelphia Story (based on the play byPhilip Barry),Tarnished Lady andLove Affair. Stewart worked with a number of the directors of his time, includingGeorge Cukor (a frequent collaborator),Michael Curtiz andErnst Lubitsch. Stewart was a member of theAlgonquin Round Table and, withErnest Hemingway's friend Bill Smith, the model for Bill Gorton inThe Sun Also Rises. His 1922 parody on etiquette,Perfect Behavior, published byGeorge H. Doran and Co., was a favorite book ofP. G. Wodehouse.[1]
His hometown wasColumbus, Ohio. He graduated fromYale University, where he became a brother to theDelta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter), in 1916, and served in theU.S. Naval Reserve inWorld War I.
After the war he started to write, and found success withA Parody Outline of History, asatire ofThe Outline of History (1920) by H. G. Wells. This led him to becoming a member of theAlgonquin Round Table. Around that time a friend of his got him interested in theater and he became aplaywright onBroadway in the 1920s. He was friends withDorothy Parker,Robert Benchley,George S. Kaufman, and Ernest Hemingway, who partly based the character of Bill Gorton inThe Sun Also Rises on Stewart. In 1924, he wroteMr. and Mrs. Haddock Abroad for the publishing houseGeorge H. Doran, asend-up of the "ugly American" tourist.
He became interested in adapting some of his plays to film, but on first enteringHollywood he had to adapt the plays of others as his own were initially shelved. Once there he mostly wrote, but he also had a small acting part in the filmNot So Dumb. By the 1930s, he had become known primarily as ascreenwriter, and wonan Academy Award forThe Philadelphia Story (1940). AsWorld War II approached, he became a member of theHollywood Anti-Nazi League, and admitted to being a member of theCommunist Party USA at one of its public meetings.
During theSecond Red Scare, Stewartwas blacklisted in 1950; the following year, he and his wife, activist and writerElla Winter (they had married in 1939), emigrated to England. In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing torefuse tax payments inprotest against the Vietnam War.[2] His 1975 memoir is entitledBy a Stroke of Luck.
Stewart died inLondon in 1980. His widow died three days later. Stewart had two sons from a previous marriage.[1][3]
Stewart was portrayed by the actor and playwrightDavid Gow in the 1994 filmMrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.
