Dudley Nichols

Dudley Nichols (April 6, 1895 – January 4, 1960) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was the first person to decline an Academy Award, as part of a boycott to gain recognition for the Screen Writers Guild; he would later accept his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1938.

Dudley Nichols
Born(1895-04-06)April 6, 1895
Wapakoneta, Ohio, United States
DiedJanuary 4, 1960(1960-01-04) (aged 64)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, film director

Biography

Dudley Nichols was born April 6, 1895, in Wapakoneta, Ohio.[1] He studied at the University of Michigan where he was active member of the Sigma chapter of Theta Xi fraternity.

After working as a reporter for the New York World, Nichols moved to Hollywood in 1929 and became one of the most highly regarded screenwriters of the 1930s and 1940s. He collaborated on many films over many years with director John Ford, and was also noted for his work with George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir.[1]

Nichols wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for films including Bringing Up Baby (1938), Stagecoach (1939), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Scarlet Street (1945), And Then There Were None (1945), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), Pinky (1949) and The Tin Star (1957).[2]

Nichols initially declined the Academy Award he received for The Informer, due to a dispute between the Screen Writers Guild, of which he was a founder, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[3] He collected the award at the 1938 Oscar ceremony.[4] He served as president of the Screen Writers Guild in 1937 and 1938.

He also co-wrote the documentary The Battle of Midway, which won the 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Nichols produced and directed three films—Government Girl (1943), Sister Kenny (1946) and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)—for which he also wrote the screenplay.[5][6]

Awards

In 1954 he received the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America.[7]

Death

He died in Hollywood of cancer in 1960 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Filmography
Year Title Notes
1930 Men Without Women [2]
1930 Born Reckless [2]
1930 On the Level [2]
1930 One Mad Kiss [2]
1930 A Devil with Women [2]
1931 Not Exactly Gentlemen [2]
1931 Seas Beneath [2]
1931 A Connecticut Yankee [2]
1931 Hush Money [2]
1931 Skyline [2]
1931 Reckless Living [2]
1931 The Black Camel [2]
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire [2]
1932 While Paris Sleeps [2]
1932 This Sporting Age [2]
1933 Robbers Roost [2]
1933 The Man Who Dared [2]
1933 Pilgrimage [2]
1933 Hot Pepper [2]
1934 Frontier Marshal [2]
1934 You Can't Buy Everything [2]
1934 Ever Since Eve [2]
1934 The Lost Patrol [2]
1934 Hold That Girl [2]
1934 Call It Luck [2]
1934 Wild Gold [2]
1934 Grand Canary [2]
1934 Judge Priest [2]
1935 Mystery Woman [2]
1935 Life Begins at 40 [2]
1935 The Informer Academy Award, Best Writing, Screenplay (not accepted until 1938)[2]
1935 The Arizonian [2]
1935 She [2]
1935 Steamboat Round the Bend [2]
1935 The Crusades [2]
1935 The Three Musketeers [2]
1936 Mary of Scotland [2]
1937 The Plough and the Stars [2]
1937 The Toast of New York [2]
1937 The Hurricane [2]
1938 Bringing Up Baby [2]
1938 Carefree [2]
1939 Gunga Din [2]
1939 Stagecoach [2]
1939 The 400 Million [2]
1940 The Long Voyage Home Academy Award nominee[1][2]
1941 Man Hunt [2]
1941 Swamp Water [2]
1942 The Battle of Midway
1943 Air Force Academy Award nominee[1][2]
1943 This Land Is Mine [2]
1943 Mr. Lucky [2]
1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls [2]
1944 Government Girl Also producer and director[2]
1944 It Happened Tomorrow [2]
1945 And Then There Were None [2]
1945 The Bells of St. Mary's [2]
1945 Scarlet Street [2]
1946 Sister Kenny Also producer and director[2]
1947 The Fugitive [2]
1947 Mourning Becomes Electra Also producer and director[2]
1949 Pinky [2]
1951 Rawhide [2]
1952 Return of the Texan [2]
1952 The Big Sky [2]
1954 Prince Valiant [2]
1956 Run for the Sun [2]
1957 The Tin Star Academy Award nominee[1][2]
1959 The Hangman [2]
1960 Heller in Pink Tights [2]

References
  1. Katz, Ephraim (1998). Klein, Fred; Nolen, Ronald Dean (eds.). The Film Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 1015. ISBN 0-06-273492-X.
  2. "Dudley Nichols". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  3. "Nichols Declines Award". The New York Times. March 10, 1936. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  4. "The Informer". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013.
  5. "Dudley Nichols". IMDb. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  6. Bruce Eder (2014). "Dudley Nichols". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014.
  7. "Dudley Nichols of Films is Dead". The New York Times. January 6, 1960. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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