Wendell Mayes
Wendell Mayes was an influential American screenwriter born on July 21, 1919, in Hayti, Missouri. Initially aspiring to be an actor, he shifted his focus to writing while in New York after serving in the Navy during World War II. Mayes gained prominence in the late 1950s as a prolific screenwriter, with a significant number of his screenplays making it to production—19 for film and 2 for television. His career highlights include adaptations of notable literary works, with films such as "Anatomy of a Murder," which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Mayes often explored themes of westerns, war, suspense, and drama in his scripts. Some of his well-known titles include "Advise and Consent," "Von Ryan's Express," and "The Poseidon Adventure." In addition to his film work, he returned to television in the early 1980s, contributing to projects like "Monsignor." Mayes's career waned after he was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1980s, and he passed away on March 28, 1992. Known for his self-deprecating humor, he viewed screenwriting as a playful craft, comparing it to "making mud pies."
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Wendell Mayes
Screenwriter
- Born: July 21, 1919
- Birthplace: Hayti, Missouri
- Died: March 28, 1992
- Place of death: Santa Monica, California
Biography
Wendell Mayes was born July 21, 1919, in Hayti, Missouri. He dropped out of college and served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. He went to New York intent on making a career as an actor. It was there that he began writing.
In the late 1950’s, he emerged as a prolific and productive screenwriter. Unlike many screenwriters in Hollywood, Mayes saw virtually all his screenplays produced. Nineteen of his screenplays appeared on the silver screen and two on television. His first play, broadcast in 1957, was The Most Blessed Woman, which drew Billy Wilder to commission him to write a screenplay based on the autobiography of Charles Lindbergh. The result, that same year, was the film The Spirit of St. Louis. In the span of just three years, six more of Mayes’s screenplays were produced: In 1957, The Way to the Gold and The Enemy Below (adapted from the novel by R. A. Rayner); the next year, From Hell to Texas (based on the 1950’s novel The Hell Bent Kid by Charles O. Locke) and The Hunters; and in 1959, The Hanging Tree (based on Dorothy Johnson’s novel of the same name) and Anatomy of a Murder (from Robert Travers’s novel). The latter screenplay won a nomination for an Academy Award and a Writers Guild Award.
Most of Mayes’s screenplays have been adaptations from stories or novels. Many of his films are westerns and war movies; some are suspense dramas involving murder and vengeance. Some of his best-known works are Advise and Consent (1962), Von Ryan’s Express (1965), Hotel (1967), and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Mayes adapted Daniel Ford’s novel, Incident at Muc Wa, about the Vietnam War. Mayes sought for several years to get the adaptation produced. It finally was produced in 1978 under the title Go Tell the Spartans. Mayes returned to television in 1982 with the film Monsignor, written in collaboration with Abraham Polonsky and based on the novel by Jack Alain Leger. Mayes also wrote Criminal Behavior, which aired in 1992.
In the late 1980’s Mayes was diagnosed with cancer. He died on March 28, 1992. He had a self-deprecating humor and is reported to have remarked, “I think screenwriting and making movies are pretty much on the same level as making mud pies and just about as interesting.”