Joan Harrison

Joan Harrison (20 June 1907 – 14 August 1994) was an English screenwriter and producer. She was the first female screenwriter to be nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Award following the introduction of the category in 1940, and was the first screenwriter to receive two Academy Award nominations in the same year in separate categories: for co-writing the screenplay for Foreign Correspondent (original) and Rebecca (1940) (adapted), both directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with whom she had a long professional relationship.

Biography

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Harrison was the daughter of a publisher of two local newspapers. She studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford and reviewed films for the student newspaper. She also studied at the Sorbonne. In 1933, she became Alfred Hitchcock's secretary after answering a newspaper advertisement. She began reading books and scripts for him and became one of Hitchcock's most trusted associates. Harrison appears in a scene in Hitchcock's original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), eating dinner with Peter Lorre's character. Hitchcock developed the habit of taking Harrison to dinner and recounting the details of hundreds of murders; Harrison had developed an interest in criminology. She worked with Hitchcock on other areas of his film's production with his wife Alma Reville. The couple became close to Harrison. She was among the screenwriters for Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn (1939) based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, her first script. collaborating with the director Robert Siodmak. She was also credited as one of the screenwriters for Dark Waters (1944) after Phantom Lady star Franchot Tone persuaded her to work on the script as the writer of the original story, Marian Cockrell, was having difficulties with the adaptation.

Personal life Harrison married thriller novelist Eric Ambler in 1958; the couple remained married until her death in 1994. She and Ambler lived in London for the last 20 years of her life. Best Screenplay (shared with Robert E. Sherwood)