Frances Marion
Appearance
Frances Marion | |
|---|---|
Marion directing The Love Light, which she also wrote, 1920 | |
| Born | Marion Benson Owens November 18, 1888 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 12, 1973 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1912–1972 |
| Spouses | Wesley de Lappe
(m. 1906; div. 1910)Robert Pike
(m. 1911; div. 1917) |
Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens; November 18, 1888[1] – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist, and author. She is said[by whom?] to be one of the most famous female screenwriters of the 20th century. During her career, she wrote over 325 scripts.[2] She was the first writer to win 2 Academy Awards. In her early career, she wrote many different silent movie scenarios scenarios for Mary Pickford. After that, she wrote many sound movies.
Famous movies
[change | change source]| Year | Title | Featured Stars | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1912 | The New York Hat | Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish | Contributing writer |
| 1915 | Camille | Clara Kimball Young, Paul Capellani, Robert Cummings | Scenario |
| A Girl of Yesterday | Mary Pickford, Frances Marion, Glenn L. Martin | Actress | |
| 1916 | The Foundling | Mary Pickford, Mildred Morris, Gertrude Norman | Writer |
| The Gilded Cage | Alice Brady, Montagu Love, Alec B. Francis | Scenarist/writer | |
| 1917 | A Little Princess | Katherine Griffith, Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, ZaSu Pitts, Theodore Roberts | Writer |
| Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm | Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien | Writer | |
| The Poor Little Rich Girl | Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks | Writer | |
| 1918 | Stella Maris | Mary Pickford | Photoplay |
| How Could You, Jean? | Mary Pickford | Scenario | |
| M'Liss | Mary Pickford | Writer | |
| Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley | Mary Pickford, William Scott, Kate Price | Writer | |
| The Temple of Dusk | Sessue Hayakawa, Jane Novak, Louis Willoughby, Mary Jane Irving | Writer | |
| 1919 | The Cinema Murder | Marion Davies, Eulalie Jensen, Anders Randolf, Reginald Barlow | Scenario |
| Anne of Green Gables | Mary Miles Minter | Writer | |
| 1920 | Pollyanna | Mary Pickford | Adaptation |
| The Flapper | Olive Thomas, Warren Cook | Screenplay, story | |
| Humoresque | Gaston Glass, Vera Gordon, Alma Rubens | Scenario | |
| The Restless Sex | Marion Davies, Ralph Kellard | Writer | |
| 1921 | The Love Light | Mary Pickford, Evelyn Dumo | Director, story (uncredited) |
| Just Around the Corner | Margaret Seddon, Lewis Sargent, Sigrid Holmquist | Director, scenario | |
| 1922 | The Primitive Lover | Constance Talmadge, Harrison Ford | Scenario |
| The Toll of the Sea | Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley | Scenario (uncredited), story | |
| 1923 | The Famous Mrs. Fair | Myrtle Stedman, Huntley Gordon | Adaptation, screenplay |
| The Song of Love | Norma Talmadge, Joseph Schildkraut, Arthur Edmund Carewe | Director, screenplay | |
| 1924 | Secrets | Norma Talmadge | Adaptation |
| Cytherea | Alma Rubens, Constance Bennett, Norman Kerry, Lewis Stone, Irene Rich | Adaptation | |
| The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln | George A. Billing, Ruth Clifford, George K. Arthur, Louise Fazenda | Story, screenplay | |
| 1925 | Stella Dallas | Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett, Lois Moran | Adaptation |
| A Thief in Paradise | Doris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen Pringle | Adaptation | |
| Thank You | Alec B. Francis, Jacqueline Logan | Writer | |
| Lightnin' | Jay Hunt, Wallace MacDonald | Writer | |
| 1926 | The Scarlet Letter | Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson | Adaptation, scenario, titles |
| The Winning of Barbara Worth | Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky | Adaptation | |
| Son of the Sheik | Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, Montagu Love, Karl Dane, George Fawcett | Adaptation | |
| 1927 | The Red Mill | Marion Davies | Adaptation, screenplay |
| Love | John Gilbert, Greta Garbo | Continuity | |
| Madame Pompadour | Dorothy Gish | Writer | |
| 1928 | The Wind | Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming | Scenario |
| The Awakening | Vilma Bánky, Walter Byron | Story | |
| Bringing Up Father | J. Farrell MacDonald, Polly Moran, Marie Dressler | Writer | |
| 1929 | Their Own Desire | Norma Shearer, Belle Bennett, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, Helene Millard | Screenplay |
| 1930 | Min and Bill | Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery | Dialogue, scenario |
| The Big House | Robert Montgomery, Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone | Dialogue, story Won the Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) | |
| Good News | Mary Lawlor, Stanley Smith | Scenario | |
| The Rogue Song | Lawrence Tibbett, Catherine Dale Owen | Writer | |
| Anna Christie | Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, Marie Dressler | Writer | |
| 1931 | The Secret Six | Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy, Marjorie Rambeau | Dialogue, screenplay |
| The Champ | Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Roscoe Ates | Story Won the Academy Award for Best Story | |
| 1932 | Blondie of the Follies | Marion Davies, Robert Montgomery, Billie Dove | Screenplay, story |
| Emma | Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy | Story | |
| 1933 | Peg o' My Heart | Marion Davies, Onslow Stevens, J. Farrell MacDonald | Adaptation |
| Dinner at Eight | Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke | Screenplay | |
| The Prizefighter and the Lady | Myrna Loy, Max Baer, Walter Huston, Primo Carnera, Jack Dempsey | Story Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story | |
| Going Hollywood | Marion Davies, Bing Crosby, Fifi D'Orsay, Stuart Erwin | Story (uncredited) | |
| Secrets | Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard | Writer | |
| 1936 | Camille | Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore | Screenplay |
| Riffraff | Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy | Screenplay, story | |
| Poor Little Rich Girl | Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Gloria Stuart, Michael Whalen, Claude Gillingwater | Writer | |
| 1937 | Knight Without Armour | Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat | Adaptation |
| Love from a Stranger | Ann Harding, Basil Rathbone | Adaptation | |
| 1940 | Green Hell | Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Vincent Price, Joan Bennett, Alan Hale Sr., George Sanders, John Howard | Original story, screenplay |
Published works
[change | change source]- Minnie Flynn. NY: Boni and Liveright, 1925; free via google books and Hathi Trust
- The Secret Six. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1931 (novelization of her own screenplay of The Secret Six)
- Valley People. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935
- How to Write and Sell Film Stories. NY: Covici-Friede, 1937
- Molly, Bless Her. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937
- Westward The Dream. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Company, 1948
- The Passions of Linda Lane. NY: Diversey Publications, 1949 [paperback; revised edition of Minnie Flynn]
- The Powder Keg. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953
- Off With Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood (via Internet Archive (registration required)) NY: The Macmillan Company, 1972 memoir
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Beauchamp, Cari (1997). Without Lying Down. University of California Press. pp. 22–37. ISBN 978-0-520-21492-7.
- ↑ Kwong, Jess. "17 Women Who Made History — That You've Never Heard Of". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
- ↑ "Valley People".[permanent dead link]
- ↑ STAFF, REGISTER (May 16, 2021). "Rebecca Yerger, Memory Lane : Napa County's literary legacy". The Napa Valley Register. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
- ↑ Strauss, Harold (August 4, 1935). "A Portrait Gallery of Village People; VALLEY PEOPLE. By Frances Marion. 282 pp. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. $2". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
Other websites
[change | change source]Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frances Marion.
- Oral history interview with Frances Marion, 1958 Archived 2024-07-09 at the Wayback Machine Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University Libraries
- Frances Marion at National Women's History Museum
- Frances Marion at britannica.com
- Frances Marion at encyclopedia.com
- Frances Marion at the TCM Movie Database
- Works by Frances Marion at Open Library
- Frances Marion at the Women Film Pioneers Project
- Archived December 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
- Frances Marion on IMDb
- Frances Marion: Hollywood's Favourite Storyteller @ Falkirk Leisure and Culture via YouTube
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-life-of-frances-marion-a-trailblazer-for-women-in-hollywood
- https://msinthebiz.com/2016/08/04/dame-in-the-game-frances-marion/
- https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/10119-the-great-screenwriters-part-27-frances-marion/ Archived 2025-05-12 at the Wayback Machine
- https://lithub.com/how-frances-marion-and-mary-pickford-conquered-hollywood/
- Frances Marion article in Photoplay 1917