John Paxton
John Paxton was an influential American screenwriter born in 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. Known for his socially conscious storytelling, Paxton's work addressed pressing societal issues such as anti-Semitism, nuclear threats, and juvenile delinquency. After graduating from the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism, he initially struggled with stuttering, which hindered his aspiration for an acting career. His entry into the film industry began in the 1940s when he joined RKO Pictures, where he collaborated with notable filmmaker Edward Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott.
Paxton's significant works include the film noir classic "Murder, My Sweet," which became emblematic of the genre in the 1940s, as well as "The Wild One" and "On the Beach," the latter of which reflects on the perils of nuclear war. Notably, in "Crossfire," Paxton adapted a character’s backstory to confront the issue of anti-Semitism directly. Throughout his career, he produced several impactful screenplays and even ventured into television with "The Great Man's Whiskers." Paxton passed away in 1985, leaving behind a legacy marked by his commitment to addressing relevant social concerns through film.
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John Paxton
Writer
- Born: March 21, 1911
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
- Died: January 5, 1985
- Place of death: Santa Monica, California
Biography
John Paxton, a man of considerable social conscience, wrote screenplays that highlighted the most significant problems facing contemporary society: anti-Semitism, the nuclear threat, suicide, juvenile delinquency, and fascism. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1911, Paxton graduated from Central High School in Kansas City, where as a member of the school’s literary society, he was required to write or to pay a fine for nonproductivity. Following high school, Paxton continued his studies at the University of Missouri, where he was a journalism major. He longed for an acting career, but he could not obtain roles because he stuttered. He embarked on a program to help him overcome his stuttering.
Paxton’s entry into the film industry was through a relative, Katharine Cornell’s press agent, who in 1935 arranged for him to work on a playwriting contest sponsored by New York’s Theater Guild. In 1937, he left this job to become associate editor of Stage, a position he held until the magazine folded in 1938. Paxton then became a freelance writer, and in 1941 he was hired as a publicist for the Theater Guild.
In 1942, Paxton joined the hordes of people interested in working in film who were flooding into Hollywood. He became a scriptwriter for RKO Pictures. His first screenplay, My Pal, Wolf, a collaboration with Lillie Hayward and Leonard Praskins, was badly received after its release in 1944. However, producer Adrian Scott soon engaged Paxton to work on the film version of Raymond Chandler’s novel, Farewell, My Lovely, which Edward Dmytryk directed. This collaboration of writer, director, and producer resulted in the RKO film Murder, My Sweet, which was so successful that the three went on to create Cornered, So Well Remembered, and Crossfire. Murder, My Sweet became one of the most significant productions of the film noir movement that was sweeping Hollywood in the 1940’s. Paxton’s remaining four films for RKO also are film noir productions that deal with the effects of World War II. During this period, Crack-Up, released in 1946, was the only one of Paxton’s films at RKO that did not involve Scott and Dmytryk.
In Crossfire, a film based on Richard Brooks’s novel, The Brick Foxhole, Paxton took the liberty of changing the victim from a homosexual killed because of his sexual orientation, as Brooks had originally presented him, to a Jew killed because he is Jewish. In doing so, Paxton chose to deal with anti-Semitism, which at that time was a major social concern, as reflected in several plays and novels of the period.
Paxton left RKO in 1949 and worked for several other major studios. His most notable screenplays of the latter period of his life were The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando; On the Beach, a chilling film that examines the dangers of nuclear war; and Kotch, his last film, which won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Comedy.
Paxton’s one venture into writing a teledrama resulted in the production of The Great Man’s Whiskers, aired by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1973. He died in 1985 at the age of seventy-three.