Hal Kanter

Hal Kanter (December 18, 1918 – November 6, 2011) was an American writer, producer and director, principally for comedy actors such as Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley (in Loving You and Blue Hawaii), for both feature films and television. Kanter helped Tennessee Williams turn the play by Williams into the film version of The Rose Tattoo. He was regularly credited as a writer for the Academy Award broadcasts. Kanter was also the creator and executive producer of the television series Julia.

Biography Henry "Hal" Kanter was born in 1918 to publisher Albert Kanter and Rose Ehrenrich, a Jewish family in Savannah, Georgia. He had two siblings, William and Saralea who both worked for their father's company, Classics Illustrated Although Kanter was not hired by Cantor, one of his writers, Hugh Wedlock Jr., paid Kanter $10 per week to write jokes. Wedlock would then resell Kanter's jokes to Cantor. Kanter stated, "So I became a ghostwriter to a ghostwriter."

Kanter's autobiography, So Far, So Funny: My Life in Show Business, was published in 1999 by McFarland & Company, Inc., of Jefferson, North Carolina. The book chronicles his early life, his struggles in Hollywood during his early years, and his eventual success in show business in general and as a comedy writer in particular.

Kanter died at his home in Encino, California on November 6, 2011, at the age of 92.