Fay Kanin

Fay Kanin (née Mitchell; May 9, 1917 – March 27, 2013) was an American screenwriter, playwright and producer. Kanin was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983.

Biography Born Fay Mitchell in New York City to David and Bessie (née Kaiser) Mitchell, she was raised in Elmira, New York, where she won the New York State Spelling Championship at twelve and was presented with a silver cup by then Governor Franklin Roosevelt. She was encouraged to write for money by supplying small items to the Elmira Star Gazette. She was Jewish.

In high school she wrote and produced a children's radio show; then on full scholarship, she attended the private, all-female Elmira College where she divided her studies between writing and acting as well as editing the yearbook. Fay's mother took her daughter to visit her grandmother in the Bronx, and it was there that she became devoted to the theater when she saw a matinée of Idiot's Delight starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Hollywood Kanin longed to move to Los Angeles to get into pictures and her parents indulged her. Her father moved to California first to secure a job, then she and her mother packed everything and followed by train. Kanin spent her senior year at the University of Southern California where she became active in college radio. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, she wangled an interview with Sam Marx who thought she was much too young to hire; but her next interview was with story editor Bob Sparks at RKO who sent her to producer Al Lewis, who then hired her as a story editor at $75 a week. The play told the story of a female congressional representative renewing past loves. Countering existing gender roles, the play made a bold statement about women and their place outside the home. The play was a Broadway smash and starred Madeleine Carroll, Conrad Nagel, and Shirley Booth,

In 1978, Kanin and Lillian Gallo, the producer of Hustling, partnered to form a joint production company, becoming one of the early female production teams in Hollywood. Their company produced Fun and Games for Valerie Harper, a tale of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace. For Norman Lear, Kanin wrote Heartsounds, which starred Mary Tyler Moore and James Garner as a couple coping with heart disease.

Grind In 1975, Universal Studio producers asked Kanin for a screenplay about a bi-racial burlesque theater in 1933 Chicago. Nothing came of it, but in 1985 Kanin adapted her unproduced screenplay for the stage. The result was Grind. Directed by Hal Prince with choreography by Lester Wilson, the cast included Ben Vereen as a song-and-dance man, Stubby Kaye as a slapstick comic, and Leilani Jones as a stripper named Satin. The production was a disaster; the show lost its entire $4.75 million investment, and Prince and three other members of the creative team were suspended by the Dramatists Guild of America for signing a "substandard" contract.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Kanin was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1979, and served four terms until 1983. She was its second female president, following in the footsteps of earlier president Bette Davis, who left after only one month. She has also served as the president of the Screen Branch of the Writers Guild of America and as Chair of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, an officer of the Writers Guild Foundation, a member of the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a member of the board of directors of the American Film Institute.

Fay Kanin was the vice president of the Academy's 1999–2000 Board of Trustees, and a member of the steering committee of the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors, which formed in 1974, and of the National Film Preservation Board in Washington, D.C. She served on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors from 2007–08.

National Student Film Institute During the 1980s and 1990s Kanin served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute.

Filmography Sunday Punch (1942, screenplay, story) Blondie for Victory (1942, story) Goodbye, My Fancy (1951, based on her 1948 play) My Pal Gus (1952, original screenplay) Rhapsody (1954, screenplay) The Opposite Sex (1956, screenplay) Teacher's Pet (1958, screenplay) Rashomon (1959, adaptation) The Right Approach (1961, screenplay) Play of the Week: Rashomon (1961, teleplay adaptation) Congiura dei dieci, La (1962, screenplay) The Outrage (1964, adaptation) Heat of Anger (1972, teleplay) Tell Me Where It Hurts (1974, teleplay) Hustling (1975, teleplay, associate producer) Friendly Fire (1979, teleplay, co-producer) Fun and Games (1980, TV producer) Heartsounds (1984, teleplay, producer)

Stage productions Goodbye, My Fancy (1948) His and Hers (1954) with Michael Kanin Rashomon (1959) with Michael Kanin The Gay Life (1961) with Michael Kanin (later retitled as The High Life) Grind (1985)

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1958 Academy Awards Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen Teacher's Pet 1992 American Society of Cinematographers Awards Board of the Governors Award 1975 Edgar Allan Poe Awards Best Television Feature or Miniseries Hustling 1979 Humanitas Prize 90 Minute or Longer Network or Syndicated Television Friendly Fire 2003 Kieser Award 1974 Primetime Emmy Awards Best Writing in Drama – Original Teleplay Tell Me Where It Hurts Writer of the Year – Special 1975 Outstanding Writing in a Special Program – Drama or Comedy – Original Teleplay Hustling 1979 Outstanding Drama or Comedy Special Friendly Fire Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special 1985 Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special Heartsounds 1998 Producers Guild of America Awards Hall of Fame – Television Programs Friendly Fire 1985 Tony Awards Best Book of a Musical Grind 1980 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards Crystal Award 1958 Writers Guild of America Awards Best Written American Comedy Teacher's Pet 1975 Valentine Davies Award 1980 Morgan Cox Award 2005 Edmund H. North Award