Charles Brackett

Charles William Brackett
Born	November 26, 1892 Saratoga Springs, New York, U.S.
Died	March 9, 1969 (aged 76) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, screenwriter
Years active	1925–1962
Awards	Best Original Screenplay 1950 Sunset Blvd. 1953 Titanic Best Adapted Screenplay 1945 The Lost Weekend Academy Honorary Award 1959 Lifetime Achievement WGA Award – Best Written Drama 1950 Sunset Boulevard

Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and film producer, best known for his long collaboration with Billy Wilder.

Life and career

Brackett was born November 26, 1892 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 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 from 1925-29. He wrote five novels: The Counsel of the Ungodly (1920), Week-End (1925), That Last Infirmity (1926), American Colony (1929), and Entirely Surrounded (1934).

Brackett was president of the Screen Writers Guild (1938–1939). He was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 through 1955. Brackett either wrote or produced over 40 films during his career, 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. From 1936 until 1950, Brackett worked with Billy Wilder as his collaborator on thirteen movies, including The Lost Weekend (1945) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), which won Academy Awards for their screenplays. The duo's professional partnership ended in 1950, after the completion of Sunset Boulevard. Brackett then 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 1959.

Marriages

Brackett married Elizabeth Barrows Fletcher, a descendant of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower, on June 2, 1919, in Indianapolis, Indiana. They had two daughters, Alexandra Corliss Brackett (1920–1968) and Elizabeth Fletcher Brackett (1922–1997). Elizabeth died on June 7, 1948. In 1953, Brackett married Elizabeth's sister, Lillian Fletcher; that union was childless.^[1]

Death

Charles Brackett died on March 9, 1969, aged 77, in Beverly Hills, California.^[2]

Charles Brackett's diaries covering the years 1932 until the breakup with Wilder were edited by Anthony Slide under the title It's the Pictures That Got Small: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age (Columbia University Press, 2014)

Partial filmography

• Tomorrow's Love (1925) – writer; based on his own story Interlocutory
• Risky Business (1926) – based on his own story Pearls Before Cecily
• Pointed Heels (1929) – based on his story
• Secrets of a Secretary (1931) – based on his story
• College Scandal (1935) – writer
• Without Regret (1935) – writer
• The Last Outpost (1935) – writer
• Rose of the Rancho (1936) – writer
• Woman Trap (1936) – writer
• Piccadilly Jim (1936) – writer
• Live, Love and Learn (1937) – writer
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)* – writer
• What a Life (1939)* – writer
• Ninotchka (1939)* – writer
• Arise, My Love (1940)* – writer
• Hold Back the Dawn (1941)* – writer
• Ball of Fire (1941)* – writer
• The Major and the Minor (1942)* – writer
• Five Graves to Cairo (1943)* – writer, producer
• The Uninvited (1944) – producer
• The Lost Weekend (1945)* – producer, writer
• To Each His Own (1946) – writer, producer
• A Foreign Affair (1948)* – writer, producer
• The Emperor Waltz (1948)* – writer, producer
• Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) – writer, producer
• Sunset Boulevard (1950)* – writer, producer
• Edge of Doom (1950) – writer (uncredited)
• The Mating Season (1951) – writer,producer
• The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951) – writer, producer
• Niagara (1953) – writer, producer
• Titanic (1953) – writer, producer
• Woman's World (1954) – producer
• Garden of Evil (1954) – producer
• The Virgin Queen (1955) – producer
• The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) – writer, producer
• Teenage Rebel (1956) – writer, producer
• The King and I (1956) – producer
• D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) – producer
• The Wayward Bus (1957) – producer
• The Gift of Love (1958) – producer
• Ten North Frederick (1958) – producer
• The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959) – producer
• Blue Denim (1959) – producer
• Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) – writer, producer
• High Time (1960) – producer
• State Fair (1962) – producer

("*" indicates collaboration with Billy Wilder)

Award and Nominations

Academy Awards

Year	Category	Film	Result	Shared with
1939	Best Adapted Screenplay	Ninotchka	Nominated	Billy Wilder & Walter Reisch
1941	Best Adapted Screenplay	Hold Back the Dawn	Nominated	Billy Wilder
1945	Best Picture	The Lost Weekend	Won	N/A
1945	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Lost Weekend	Won	Billy Wilder
1948	Best Adapted Screenplay	A Foreign Affair	Nominated	Billy Wilder & Richard L. Breen
1950	Best Picture	Sunset Boulevard	Nominated	N/A
1950	Best Original Screenplay	Sunset Boulevard	Won	Billy Wilder & D.M. Marshman, Jr.
1953	Best Original Screenplay	Titanic	Won	Richard L. Breen & Walter Reisch
1956	Best Picture	The King and I	Nominated	N/A
1957	Honorary Award	N/A	Won	N/A

External links

• Charles Brackett at the Internet Movie Database
• Charles Brackett papers at the Margaret Herrick Library

References

1. Hopper, H. (December 27, 1953). Charlie Brackett marries sister of his first wife. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File); accessed January 18, 2016.
2. "Charles Brackett Dies at 77; Made Oscar-Winning Movies. 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'The Lost Weekend' and 'Titanic' among his successes". New York Times. March 10, 1969. Retrieved January 2, 2011. Charles Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs, NY, and graduated in 1915 from Williams College, where he was editor of the literary monthly and a member of…