Dudley Nichols
Dudley Nichols was a prominent American screenwriter born in 1895 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He began his career after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, where he invented an electronic device for minesweepers and earned the Distinguished Service Cross. Transitioning to journalism after the war, he wrote for notable publications like the New York Evening Post and the New York World, where he developed a keen understanding of criminality that later informed his screenwriting. Nichols moved to Hollywood at the urging of a studio executive, and his early work included scripts for several John Ford films, such as "Stagecoach" and "The Informer," for which he won an Academy Award but controversially refused to accept due to disputes over screenwriting credits.
As a committed supporter of the Writers Guild, Nichols served as its president and was known for his leftist views, which sometimes led to conflicts with studio executives, including Howard Hughes. While he directed a few films, his later career was marked by a focus on screenwriting, particularly for Westerns. Nichols is remembered for his intellectual and symbolic writing style and his contributions to adapting literary works for the screen. His legacy includes recognition from the Writers Guild, which awarded him the Laurel Award in 1954, highlighting his significant impact on the film industry.
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Dudley Nichols
- Born: April 6, 1895
- Birthplace: Wapakoneta, Ohio
- Died: January 4, 1960
- Place of death: Hollywood, California
Biography
Noted screenwriter Dudley Nichols was the son of Dr. Grant Byron and Mary (Means) Nichols, who lived in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Nichols was born in that town in 1895. He graduated from Blume High School, and in his early years he repaired tension wires and was a radio operator on ships working the Great Lakes. He enrolled in the University of Michigan but left to enter the navy during World War I. During his naval service, he invented an electronic device that could be used to protect minesweepers. In 1919 he wrote an article for The New York Times entitled “The Art of Sweeping Up Mines,” and his work in the navy earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, awarded in 1920. After the war he married Esta Vacez Gooch-Collins and for ten years worked as a journalist, first for the New York Evening Post, and then for the New York World. He reviewed plays and covered many courtroom trials, gaining a familiarity with criminals that he later used in his screenplays.
Nichols wanted to travel to Spain but Winifred Sheehan, an executive at Fox Studios, convinced him to go to Hollywood instead. Nichols’s first script for Fox Studios was Men Without Women, directed by John Ford, for whom he wrote several other scripts, including The Lost Patrol (1934), The Informer (1935), and Stagecoach (1939). For his work on The Informer he won an Academy Award, but he refused to accept the award because of a dispute between the Writers Guild and the motion picture industry over the right to assign screenwriting credits. He also received Academy Award nominations for his scripts for The Long Voyage Home (1940), Air Force (1943), and The Tin Star (1957).
During the 1930’s, Nichols’s heyday, he made a great deal of money—$1,500 a week in 1936 and $1,750 in 1937. In 1936 he coauthored his only Broadway play,Come Angel Band, which was unsuccessful. A longtime supporter of the Writers Guild, he served as its president during1937 and 1938, earning himself a reputation for being a leftist radical. He ran afoul of Howard Hughes, who had acquired Paramount Studios, when he wrote the script for For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and Hughes insisted on substituting the word “nationalist” for “fascist” in the script.
After the problem with Hughes, Nichols turned to writing, directing, and producing his films but his three motion pictures, Government Girl (1943), Sister Kenny (1946), and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), failed to establish him as a director. During the late 1940’s he continued to write screenplays but with the exception of The Fugitive (1948) and Pinky (1949), a racially controversial film which brought him the Robert Meltzer Award from the Writers Guild, the films were not outstanding. His scripts during the 1950’s were primarily Westerns; his last film, Heller in Pink Tights, was released in 1960, the year he died. Nichols, who specialized in adapting literary works to the screen, will be remembered for his intellectual, symbolic scripts, his work with directors Ford and Howard Hawks (for whom he scripted Bringing Up Baby, the 1938 classic screwball comedy), and his advocacy of the screenwriters’ cause. In 1954, the Writers Guild honored him with him its Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement.