Charles William Brackett
Brackett in 1942
Born	(1892-11-26)November 26, 1892 Saratoga Springs, New York, U.S.
Died	March 9, 1969(1969-03-09) (aged 76) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Williams College
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, producer
Years active	1925–1962
Spouses	Elizabeth Fletcher ​ ​ (m. 1919; died 1948)​ Lillian Fletcher ​ (m. 1953)​
Children	2

Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He collaborated withBilly Wilder on sixteen films.

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Brackett was born inSaratoga Springs, New York, the son of Mary Emma Corliss and New York State Senator, lawyer, and bankerEdgar Truman Brackett. The family's roots traced back to the arrival of Richard Brackett in theMassachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. His mother's uncle,George Henry Corliss, built theCentennial Engine that powered the 1876Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A 1915 graduate ofWilliams College, he earned his law degree fromHarvard University. He joined theAllied Expeditionary Force duringWorld War I, and was awarded the French Medal of Honor.

He was a frequent contributor to theSaturday Evening Post,Collier's, andVanity Fair, and a drama critic forThe New Yorker. He wrote five novels:The Counsel of the Ungodly (1920),Week-End (1925),That Last Infirmity (1926),American Colony (1929),^[1] andEntirely Surrounded (1934).

Brackett was a president of theScreen Writers Guild (1938–1939) and for theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1949–1955). He either wrote and/or produced over forty films, includingTo Each His Own,Ninotchka,The Major and the Minor,The Mating Season (1951),Niagara,The King and I,Ten North Frederick,The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker andBlue Denim.

Beginning in August 1936, Brackett worked with Billy Wilder, writing the film classicsThe Lost Weekend andSunset Boulevard, both of which wonAcademy Awards for their respective screenplays. Brackett described their collaboration process as follows: "The thing to do was suggest an idea, have it torn apart and despised. In a few days it would be apt to turn up, slightly changed, as Wilder's idea. Once I got adjusted to that way of working, our lives were simpler."^[2]

His partnership with Wilder ended in 1950 and Brackett went to work at20th Century-Fox as a screenwriter and producer. His script forTitanic (1953) won him another Academy Award.

He received anHonorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1958.

Brackett died on March 9, 1969.^[3] His diaries covering his screenwriting and social life from 1932 to 1949 were edited by Anthony Slide into Slide's bookIt's the Pictures That Got Small: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age.

Brackett married Elizabeth Barrows Fletcher in 1919. They had two daughters, Alexandra Corliss Brackett and Elizabeth Fletcher Brackett. His wife died in 1948, and in 1953, Brackett married Lillian Fletcher, her sister. They had no children.^[4]

Brackett was aRepublican who voted forAlf Landon in 1936 and supportedBarry Goldwater in the1964 United States presidential election.^[5]

• Brackett, Charles (December 16, 2014).Slide, Anthony (ed.)."It's the Pictures That Got Small": Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age.Columbia University Press.doi:10.7312/slid16708.ISBN 9780231167086.JSTOR 10.7312/slid16708.

("*" indicates collaboration with Wilder)

• The Counsel of the Ungodly at Google Books
• Charles Bracket atIMDb
• Charles Brackett papers at theMargaret Herrick Library

• 1892 births
• 1969 deaths
• Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
• Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
• Golden Globe Award–winning producers
• Presidents of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Harvard Law School alumni
• American male screenwriters
• People from Saratoga Springs, New York
• Film producers from New York (state)
• Academy Honorary Award recipients
• Williams College alumni
• Screenwriters from New York (state)
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American screenwriters

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