The Resume

(November 24, 1912-March 13, 1999)
Born in Rochester, New York
Screenwriter, playwright, and film and theater director
Wrote the play 'Born Yesterday' (1946)
Screenwriter for 'The More the Merrier' (1942),'A Double Life' (1947), 'Adam's Rib' (1949), 'Pat and Mike' (1952), 'The Marrying Kind' (1952) and 'The Rat Race' (1960)
Directed the Broadway plays 'Born Yesterday' (1946), 'The Diary of Anne Frank' (1955) and 'Funny Girl' (1964)
Directed the films 'The Great Man Votes' (1939), 'My Favorite Wife' (1940) and 'Some Kind of a Nut' (1968)
With Carol Reed directed the documentary 'The True Glory' (1945)
Wrote the novels 'Moviola' (1979) and 'Smash' (1980)
Inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame (1985)
Married to (and frequently collaborated with) Ruth Gordon

Why he might be annoying:

His first wife, Ruth Gordon, was 16 years his senior; his second wife, Marian Seldes, was 16 years his junior.
He said writing with Gordon was so contentious that they continued only because of the studio's insistence: 'We were trapped by success. The studio wanted us to work together or not at all.'
Katharine Hepburn considered his book 'Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Portrait' (1971) a betrayal of confidences and refused to speak to him for a year after its publication.

Why he might not be annoying:

He and Katharine Hepburn were the only witnesses at the marriage of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
He translated the libretto and directed Johann Strauss' 'Die Fledermaus' for the Metropolitan Opera (1950).
He and Gordon were paid a then-record $1 million for the film rights to 'Born Yesterday.'
He claimed that he and Gordon never had a single domestic quarrel.
He said about his favorite director, 'I'd rather be Capra than God -- if there is a Capra.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents [A-K]
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 68]
• Dick Cavett Show Guests
• I am a Jewish Atheist
• I Attended the Premiere of 'Diary of Anne Frank' [1959]
• I Did Not Graduate High School [J-M]
• I Died in 1999 (Ranked: 86)
• I Married in 1990
• My Spouse is at Least Ten Years Older than Me
• My Spouse is at Least Ten Years Younger than Me
• Person to Person - Guests [A-K]
• Playwrights
• Profiles 42501-42750 (Ranked: 42624)
• Residents/Vacationers of Martha's Vineyard
• We Died on the Same Day (Ranked: 19990313)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying