William Rose (screenwriter)
William Rose (August 31, 1918 – February 10, 1987) was an American screenwriter of British and Hollywood films.[1]
Life
Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, Rose traveled to Canada after the 1939 outbreak of World War II and volunteered to fight with the Black Watch.[2] After being stationed at bases in Scotland and Europe, he returned to live in Britain at war's end to work as a screenwriter, marrying an English woman, Tania Price, with whom he would later collaborate.[3]
Rose settled in Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1964.[4]
After the couple separated/divorced, Tania returned to live in London in the autumn of 1967. Tania died in 2015 aged 95.[5][6]
In the 1970s, he had a brief relationship with Katharine Hepburn.[7]
He died in Jersey in 1987.[8] He is buried in the Churchyard at St. Clement Parish Church, Jersey.
Career
Blessed with the ability to adapt to two distinct cultures, William Rose wrote a number of successful British comedies including Genevieve (1953).[3] He became a working associate of the American-born director Alexander Mackendrick notably for his collaboration on The Maggie (US:High and Dry, 1954) and The Ladykillers (1955).[3] He also provided scripts for Hollywood studios, earning several Academy Award nominations for his screenwriting and winning the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).[9] Rose also won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Written American Comedy for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966).[10]
In 1973, Rose's lifetime achievements were recognized by the Writers Guild of America with their Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement.[11]
Screenwriting awards
Filmography
Year | Title | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1948 | Once a Jolly Swagman | Jack Lee | Credited with Jack Lee & Cliff Gordon |
Esther Waters | Ian Dalrymple Peter Proud | Credited with Michael Gordon & Gerard Tyrrell | |
1950 | I'll Get You for This | Joseph M. Newman | Credited with George Callahan |
My Daughter Joy | Gregory Ratoff | Credited with Robert Thoeren | |
1952 | Gift Horse | Compton Bennett | Credited with William Fairchild & Hugh Hastings |
1953 | Genevieve | Henry Cornelius | |
1954 | The Maggie | Alexander Mackendrick | |
1955 | The Ladykillers | ||
Touch and Go | Michael Truman | ||
1957 | The Man in the Sky | Charles Crichton | Credited with John Eldridge |
The Smallest Show on Earth | Basil Dearden | Credited with John Eldridge | |
1963 | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Stanley Kramer | Credited with Tania Rose |
1966 | The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | Norman Jewison | |
1967 | The Flim-Flam Man | Irvin Kershner | |
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | Stanley Kramer | ||
1969 | The Secret of Santa Vittoria |
Notes
- ^ Leo Verswijver (27 February 2003). "Movies Were Always Magical": Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s. McFarland. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7864-1129-0.
- ^ "William Rose - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
- ^ a b c "BFI Screenonline: Rose, William (1918-1987) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.
- ^ "Oscar-winning screenwriter made his home in Jersey". Bailiwick Express. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
- ^ "'The Ladykillers' scriptwriter from Gloucestershire village dies aged 95" Archived 2015-10-24 at the Wayback Machine, Gloucestershire Live, October 23, 2015.
- ^ Claudia Robinson, "Tania Rose obituary", The Guardian, December 18, 2015.
- ^ Carter, Grace May (18 June 2016). Katharine Hepburn. New Word City. ISBN 9781612309613 – via Google Books.
- ^ "William Rose". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2018.
- ^ "William Rose - Movie and Film Awards". AllMovie.
- ^ "Writers Guild Awards Winners 1995-1949". awards.wga.org.
- ^ "Screen Laurel Award Previous Recipients". awards.wga.org.
External links
- William Rose at IMDb