Anthony Veiller — Writing | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

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Anthony Veiller (23 June 1903 – 27 June 1965) was an American screenwriter and film producer. The son of the screenwriter Bayard Veiller and the English actress Margaret Wycherly, Anthony Veiller wrote for 41 films between 1934 and 1964.

He was born on 23 June 1903 in New York City to Bayard Veiller and Margaret Wycherly. He moved to Hollywood in 1930.

Veiller was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. In 1937, he co-wrote (with Morrie Ryskind) the screenplay for Stage Door, starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Adolphe Menjou. This very loose adaptation of the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Veiller was also Oscar-nominated for writing (with uncredited help from John Huston and Richard Brooks) The Killers (1946), an adaptation of the short story by Ernest Hemingway. This seminal example of film noir, which introduced Burt Lancaster to filmgoers, won an Edgar Award as best mystery film of 1946, and in 2008 was enshrined in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Veiller frequently worked with top directors. During the Second World War he worked with Frank Capra on several films in the documentary/propaganda film series collectively titled Why We Fight. In 1946 (the same year as The Killers), Veiller co-wrote The Stranger, directed by and starring Orson Welles. For State of the Union (1948), again directed by Capra, Veiller was credited as co-producer as well as co-writer. Veiller worked with director John Huston on several films: Moulin Rouge (1952), Beat the Devil (1953), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), and The Night of the Iguana (1964), the film of the Tennessee Williams play that became Veiller's final screen credit.

Veiller died on 27 June 1965 of cancer, in Hollywood, California. He was buried in the St Mary Churchyard, Bepton, Chichester, West Sussex, England as was his mother.

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