Samson Raphaelson
Samson Raphaelson was an influential American playwright and screenwriter, renowned for his contributions to both the Broadway stage and Hollywood film. He began his career as a playwright in the 1920s, with his most notable work being "The Jazz Singer," which was adapted into the first talking film in 1927. Although initially reluctant to engage with the film industry, Raphaelson pivoted to screenwriting after a series of personal and financial challenges. Over the next two decades, he worked with major studios like Paramount and RKO, crafting scripts that often reflected his characteristic gentle humor and realistic portrayals of flawed characters.
Some of his notable collaborations included projects with director Ernst Lubitsch, such as "Trouble in Paradise" and "The Shop Around the Corner," which later inspired the film "You've Got Mail." He also worked with Alfred Hitchcock on the film "Suspicion." Raphaelson remained committed to his passion for writing, teaching playwrighting and authoring "The Human Nature of Playwriting," which emphasized integrity in the craft. Recognized for his lifetime achievements, he received the Writers Guild's Laurel Award in 1977. Raphaelson continued to influence the arts through his teaching and involvement in the Israeli film industry before passing away in 1983 at the age of eighty-nine.
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Samson Raphaelson
Writer
- Born: March 30, 1894
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: July 16, 1983
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Samson Raphaelson’s name is often associated with Hollywood films. He was a screenwriter for Paramount Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the years between 1931 and 1953. Yet, he also was a successful playwright, having written ten plays for the Broadway stage from 1925 to 1950.
Raphaelson saw himself first and foremost as a playwright. His first stage play was The Jazz Singer, produced in 1925 and later made into the first talking film, starring Al Jolson, in 1927. Raphaelson was dismayed with the film and wanted nothing to do with the film industry. However, he changed his opinion in 1929 after his play, The Magnificent Heel, failed, the stock market crashed, his wife, Deborah Wegman, was pregnant, and his finances were in shambles. He took a job as contract writer for RKO Pictures for a very respectable $750 a week. He soon went to Paramount, and for the next two decades he was never far from the Hollywood film machine.
He also was never very far from Broadway. He alternated regularly between his favored profession as a playwright and his lucrative career as a screenwriter. His best known play is The Jazz Singer, which had two runs on Broadway in addition to being adapted for the screen. His other successful stage plays were Young Love, an updated version of the Romeo and Juliet story, and Accent on Youth, about a playwright who falls in love with a much younger woman after he finishes a play about a playwright who falls in love with a much younger woman.
Many of Raphaelson’s most successful films were created in collaboration with director and screenwriter Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner (remade in 1999 as You’ve Got Mail), and Heaven Can Wait. He also worked with director Alfred Hitchcock on Suspicion, starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. Although his screenwriting career had its share of successes, his involvement with the film industry was characterized by many false starts, including completed screenplays that were never produced or were entirely rewritten by someone else.
Raphaelson’s plays for both the stage and screen are characterized by gentle humor and realistic depictions of people whose lives are a little out of whack. His work as a writing instructor, which he continued intermittently throughout his life, is testament to his care and concern for integrity and honesty in writing and is evident in his inspirational book, The Human Nature of Playwriting. In 1982, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers on a Public Broadcasting System program, and this discussion also revealed Raphaelson’s dedication to the art and craft of dramatic writing.
Raphaelson spent much of his later career teaching playwrighting. During the 1970’s, he was involved in the development of the film industry in Israel and served as an adjunct professor of writing and film theory and history at Columbia University. The Writers Guild honored him with its Laurel Award in 1977 in recognition of a lifetime of achievement for screenwriting. He died in 1983 at the age of eighty-nine.