Charles Brackett
Charles Brackett was a prominent American screenwriter and author, recognized as one of the most accomplished figures in Hollywood during the twentieth century. Born in 1892 in Saratoga Springs, New York, he was the son of a notable attorney and senator, Edgar Truman Brackett. After earning a bachelor's degree from Williams College and briefly attending Harvard Law School, he served in World War I, where he received honors for his contributions to the French wartime efforts. Brackett transitioned from law to writing, initially publishing short stories and a novel before taking on the role of drama critic for The New Yorker.
His career took a significant turn when he partnered with renowned filmmaker Billy Wilder, forming one of the most successful writing teams in the industry. Together, they produced several acclaimed films, including "Sunset Boulevard," which won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Brackett also received Oscars for "The Lost Weekend" and "Titanic," showcasing his talent in adapting stories for the screen. After a successful stint at Paramount Pictures, he joined Twentieth Century Fox but eventually left the studio amid a corporate restructuring. He spent his later years in Beverly Hills and passed away in 1969, leaving behind a legacy of influential cinematic works.
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Charles Brackett
Film Producer
- Born: November 26, 1892
- Birthplace: Saratoga Springs, New York
- Died: March 9, 1969
Biography
One of the most accomplished screenwriters of the twentieth century, Charles Brackett excelled in a number of other fields. The son of Edgar Truman Brackett, a renowned attorney and a United States senator, he was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1892. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Williams College in 1915. While studying there, he edited the school newspaper and acted in several dramatic productions. His studies at Harvard Law School were halted temporarily when he enlisted in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. Brackett received the Médaille d’Honneur en Argent for the wartime services he rendered to the French people.
Upon returning from the war, he completed his law degree. During the war he wrote a short story, “War,” which, at the urging of his mother, Mary Emma Corliss Brackett, he submitted to Saturday Evening Post. The magazine not only published the story but encouraged him to send them more of his writing. He subsequently submitted his novel, The Counsel of the Ungodly, which the magazine published serially in 1920 in three successive issues.
In the same year, shortly before his graduation from Harvard, Brackett married Elizabeth Barrows Fletcher. Upon graduation, he entered the practice of law but continued to write short stories for various magazines. Upon reading his novel Week-End, Harold Ross, editor of The New Yorker, hired Brackett as the magazine’s drama critic, a post Brackett held for three years. After going to Hollywood to work for RKO Studios, he became frustrated by the studio’s approach to screenwriting and returned to the East Coast. He joined his father’s law firm and became a director of the Adirondacks Trust Company, in which he eventually became a vice president.
Brackett returned to Hollywood in 1932 on a six-week contract to write screenplays for Paramount Pictures. He wrote or cowrote several films, most of them quite banal, for which he was not credited. In 1937, however, when he was on the brink of returning to the East Coast, Paramount’s production executive, Manny Wolfe, introduced Brackett to Billy Wilder and virtually mandated that they become a writing team. Although the two were polar opposites in most respects, they had a combined creative energy that resulted in their becoming the most successful writing team in Hollywood. By 1948, they were each earning five thousand dollars a week, a great fortune at that time.
Despite the success of their collaborations, the two, at Wilder’s insistence, broke up as a team around 1950, shortly after their collaboration with D. M. Marshman, Jr., on Sunset Boulevard, which won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. This film is generally considered the best of the fifteen films the two produced. Brackett and Wilder previously had been nominated for an Academy Award for Ninotchka, and they won Academy Awards for The Lost Weekend as Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Adaptation.
Following his split with Wilder, Brackett left Paramount to join Twentieth Century Fox Studios, where he won yet another Academy Award for Titanic. He remained with that studio until 1962, leaving when Darryl F. Zanuck restructured the company, pushing Brackett and many others out in violation of their contracts. Brackett sued and received a cash settlement, whereupon he retired to his home in Beverly Hills, where he spent the final years of his life. He died in 1969.