Don Hartman

Samuel Donald Hartman (18 November 1900 – 23 March 1958) was an American screenwriter and director and former production head of Paramount Pictures. He and Stephen Morehouse Avery were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story for The Gay Deception. He was also nominated with Frank Butler for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Road to Morocco in 1942.

Biography Hartman was born in Brooklyn, where his father ran the Park Circle Theatre. Hartman ran away from home to Chicago, where he worked as a bellhop, before returning to New York, where he worked in a bank. At 17 he moved to Texas, working as a truck driver. He also studied at Baylor University. He wrote the screenplay for Romance in Manhattan for RKO Pictures before joining Paramount as a writer in 1935. The Matchmaker was released posthumously. He had also been working on a third film based on the play The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold, but Paramount halted pre-production shortly before his death at age 57.

He married Helen, with whom he had a son, Timothy, and two daughters.

Selected filmography As screenwriter Romance in Manhattan (1935) The Gay Deception (1935) Coronado (1935) The Princess Comes Across (1936) Champagne Waltz (1937) Waikiki Wedding (1937) Tropic Holiday (1938) Paris Honeymoon (1939) Never Say Die (1939) The Star Maker (1939) Road to Singapore (1940) Road to Zanzibar (1941) Nothing but the Truth (1941) My Favorite Blonde (1942) Road to Morocco (1942) True to Life (1943) Up in Arms (1944) The Princess and the Pirate (1944) Wonder Man (1945) The Kid from Brooklyn (1946)

As director It Had to Be You (1947) (also wrote and produced) Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) (also wrote and produced) Holiday Affair (1949) (also produced) Mr. Imperium (1951) (also wrote) It's a Big Country (1951) (co-directed)

As producer Down to Earth (1947) (also wrote) Desire Under the Elms (1958) The Matchmaker (1958)