Charles MacArthur

Charles Gordon MacArthur (November 5, 1895 – April 21, 1956) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story for The Scoundrel.

Life and career

MacArthur was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven children of stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. Early in life, MacArthur developed a passion for reading. Declining to follow his father into ministry, he moved to the Midwest and soon became a successful reporter in Chicago, working for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Daily News. MacArthur joined the United States Army for World War I, and served in France as a private assigned to Battery F, 149th Field Artillery, a unit of the 42nd Division, The Rainbow Division. He recounted his wartime experience in 1919's A Bug's-Eye View of the War. After the war, he wrote several short stories, two of which, "Hang It All" (1921) and "Rope" (1923), were published in H. L. Mencken's The Smart Set magazine.

Film portrayal MacArthur was portrayed by Matthew Broderick in the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

Selected works

Plays Swan Song (1946), (with Ben Hecht) Ladies and Gentlemen (1939), (with Ben Hecht), made into the 1950 film Perfect Strangers Johnny on a Spot Jumbo, (with Ben Hecht), made into the 1935 musical play Jumbo and the 1962 film musical Billy Rose's Jumbo Twentieth Century (with Ben Hecht), made into the 1934 film Twentieth Century The Front Page (1928), with Ben Hecht, made into the 1931, 1945, and 1974 motion pictures of the same name, the 1940 film His Girl Friday, and the 1988 movie Switching Channels Lulu Belle (1926), (with Edward Sheldon)

Screenplays Wuthering Heights (1939) Gunga Din (1939) Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) (uncredited) King of Gamblers (1937), Czar of the Slot Machines (uncredited) Soak the Rich (1936) The Scoundrel (1935) Barbary Coast (1935) Once in a Blue Moon (1935) Crime Without Passion (1934) (also directed by him and Ben Hecht) Topaze (1933) Freaks (1932) (uncredited) Rasputin and the Empress (1932) The Unholy Garden (1931) Quick Millions (1931) (uncredited) Hell Divers (1931) New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford (1931) The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) Paid (1930) Way for a Sailor (1930) King of Jazz (1930) (uncredited) Billy the Kid (1930) The Girl Said No (1930)