Biography
Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and film producer. He collaborated with Billy Wilder on sixteen films.
Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the son of Mary Emma Corliss and New York State Senator, lawyer, and banker Edgar Truman Brackett. The family's roots traced back to the arrival of Richard Brackett in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629, near present-day Springfield, Massachusetts. His mother's uncle, George Henry Corliss, built the Centennial Engine that powered the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A 1915 graduate of Williams College, he earned his law degree from Harvard University. He joined the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War I. He was awarded the French Medal of Honor. He was a frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, and Vanity Fair, and a drama critic for The New Yorker. He wrote five novels: The Counsel of the Ungodly (1920), Week-End (1925), That Last Infirmity (1926), and American Colony (1929). and Entirely Surrounded (1934).
Brackett was a president of the Screen Writers Guild (1938–1939) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1949–1955). He either wrote and/or produced over forty films, including To Each His Own, Ninotchka, The Major and the Minor, The Mating Season (1951), Niagara, The King and I, Ten North Frederick, The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, and Blue Denim.
Beginning in August 1936, Brackett worked with Billy Wilder, writing the film classics The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard, both of which won Academy Awards for their respective screenplays. Brackett described their collaboration process as follows: "The thing to do was suggest an idea, have it torn apart and despised. In a few days, it would be apt to turn up, slightly changed, as Wilder's idea. Once I got adjusted to that way of working, our lives were simpler."
His partnership with Wilder ended in 1950 and Brackett went to work at 20th Century-Fox as a screenwriter and producer. His script for Titanic (1953) won him another Academy Award.
He received an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1958.
Charles Brackett died on March 9, 1969. His diaries covering his screenwriting and social life from 1932 to 1949 were edited by Anthony Slide into Slide's book It's the Pictures That Got Small: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age.
Filmography
all 59
Movies 58
Writer 40
Producer 15
self 3
TV Shows 1
Screenplay 1
And the Oscar Goes To... (2014)
State Fair (1962)
High Time (1960)
Ninotchka (1960)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Blue Denim (1959)
The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959)
Ten North Frederick (1958)
The Gift of Love (1958)
The Wayward Bus (1957)
Teenage Rebel (1956)
The King and I (1956)
D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955)
The Virgin Queen (1955)
Woman's World (1954)
Garden of Evil (1954)
Titanic (1953)
The Oscars (1953)
Niagara (1953)
The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951)
The Mating Season (1951)
The Screen Writer (1950)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Edge of Doom (1950)
Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948)
A Foreign Affair (1948)
The Emperor Waltz (1948)
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
To Each His Own (1946)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Great Moment (1944)
Skirmish on the Home Front (1944)
The Uninvited (1944)
Mr. Lucky (1943)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
The Major and the Minor (1942)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
Arise, My Love (1940)
French Without Tears (1940)
Ninotchka (1939)
What a Life (1939)
Midnight (1939)
That Certain Age (1938)
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Live, Love and Learn (1937)
The Jungle Princess (1936)
Piccadilly Jim (1936)
Woman Trap (1936)
Rose of the Rancho (1936)
The Last Outpost (1935)
Without Regret (1935)
The Crusades (1935)
College Scandal (1935)
Enter Madame (1935)
Secrets of a Secretary (1931)
Pointed Heels (1929)
Risky Business (1926)
Ratings
Information
Known ForWriting
GenderMale
Birthday1892-11-26
Deathday1969-03-09 (76 years old)
Birth PlaceSaratoga Springs, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known AsCharles William Brackett
AwardsWriters Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay, Writers Guild of America Award, Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay
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