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Frances Marion
Writer, Screenwriter

Frances Marion

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
Writer, Screenwriter
Gender
Female
Place of birth
San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, U.S.A.
Place of death
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, U.S.A.
Age
84 years
Family
Spouse:
George W. Hill Fred Thomson
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Frances Marion (November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American journalist, author, film director and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards.

Early life

Marion was born Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco, California to Len Owens and Minnie Benson. She had an older sister, Maude, and a younger brother, Len. Her parents divorced when she was ten, and she lived with her mother. She dropped out of school at age twelve, after having been caught drawing a cartoon strip of her teacher. She then transferred to a school in San Mateo and then to art school in San Francisco when she was sixteen years old. This school was destroyed by an earthquake in 1906.

Career

Marion worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during World War I. She documented women's contribution to the war effort on the front lines, and became the first woman to cross the Rhine after the armistice. On her return home, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired as a writing assistant, an actress and general assistant by "Lois Weber Productions", a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber. She could have been an actor, but preferred work behind the camera. She learned screenwriting from Weber, and wrote one screenplay for her, but then burned it.

As "Frances Marion," she wrote many scripts for actress/filmmaker Mary Pickford, including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The Poor Little Rich Girl, as well as scripts for numerous other successful films of the 1920s and 1930s. During this time, she earned a salary of $50,000 per year which was unheard of at the time. Marion went to New York for her job, and her husband declined to live with her and they divorced. She became the first female to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1930 for the film The Big House, she received the Academy Award for Best Story for The Champ in 1932, both featuring Wallace Beery, and co-wrote Min and Bill starring her friend Marie Dressler and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films. She directed and occasionally appeared in some of Mary Pickford's early movies.

Personal life

Min and Bill (1930)

Marion's father Len D. Owens built the Aetna Springs resort in Aetna Springs, California in the 1870s. After her success in Hollywood, she often visited the resort using it as a retreat and drew several actors to the resort with her.

Marion was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe, and later to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed Fred Thomson, who co-starred with Mary Pickford in The Love Light in 1921. She was such close friends with Mary Pickford, that they honeymooned together when Mary married Douglas Fairbanks and Frances married Fred. After Thomson's unexpected death from a leg wound in 1928, she married director George W. Hill in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933. She had two sons—Frederick C. Thomson and Richard Thomson (adopted). Fred earned a PhD in English at Yale, taught there and later joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina. He became an editor of the writings of George Eliot, publishing editions of Felix Holt, the Radical in 1980 and later.

Later years and death

For many years she was under contract to MGM Studios, but, independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing stage plays and novels.

Frances Marion published a memoir Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood in 1972. Marion died the following year of a ruptured aneurysm in Los Angeles.

Selected filmography

YearTitleFeatured StarsNotes
1912The New York HatMary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian GishContributing writer
1915CamilleClara Kimball Young, Paul Capellani, Robert CummingsScenario
A Girl of YesterdayMary Pickford, Frances Marion, Glenn L. Martinactress
1916The Gilded CageAlice Brady, Montagu Love, Alec B. Francisscenarist/writer
1917The Little PrincessKatherine Griffith, Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, ZaSu Pitts, Theodore RobertsWriter
Rebecca of Sunnybrook FarmMary Pickford, Eugene O'BrienWriter
The Poor Little Rich GirlMary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys FairbanksWriter
1918Stella MarisMary PickfordPhotoplay
How Could You, Jean?Mary PickfordScenario
M'LissMary PickfordWriter
Amarilly of Clothes-Line AlleyMary Pickford, William Scott, Kate PriceWriter
1919The Cinema MurderMarion Davies, Eulalie Jensen, Anders Randolf, Reginald BarlowScenario
Anne of Green GablesMary Miles MinterWriter
1920PollyannaMary PickfordAdaptation
The FlapperOlive Thomas, Warren CookScreenplay, story
The Restless SexMarion Davies, Ralph KellardWriter
1921The Love LightMary Pickford, Evelyn DumoDirector, story (uncredited)
1922The Toll of the SeaAnna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice BentleyScenario (uncredited), story
1923The Famous Mrs. FairMyrtle Stedman, Huntley GordonAdaptation, screenplay
1924SecretsNorma TalmadgeAdaptation
CythereaAlma Rubens, Constance Bennett, Norman Kerry, Lewis Stone, Irene RichAdaptation
The Dramatic Life of Abraham LincolnGeorge A. Billing, Ruth Clifford, George K. Arthur, Louise FazendaStory, screenplay
1925Stella DallasRonald Colman, Belle Bennett, Lois MoranAdaptation
A Thief in ParadiseDoris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen PringleAdaptation
Thank YouAlec B. Francis, Jacqueline LoganWriter
Lightnin'Jay Hunt, Wallace MacDonaldWriter
1926The Scarlet LetterLillian Gish, Lars HansonAdaptation, scenario, titles
The Winning of Barbara WorthRonald Colman, Vilma BánkyAdaptation
Son of the SheikRudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, Montagu Love, Karl Dane, George FawcettAdaptation
1927The Red MillMarion DaviesAdaptation, screenplay
LoveJohn Gilbert, Greta GarboContinuity
Madame PompadourDorothy GishWriter
1928The WindLillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy CummingScenario
The AwakeningVilma Bánky, Walter ByronStory
Bringing Up FatherJ. Farrell MacDonald, Polly Moran, Marie DresslerWriter
1929Their Own DesireNorma Shearer, Belle Bennett, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery, Helene MillardScreenplay
1930Min and BillMarie Dressler, Wallace BeeryDialogue, scenario
The Big HouseRobert Montgomery, Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, Lewis StoneDialogue, story
Won the Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Good NewsMary Lawlor, Stanley SmithScenario
The Rouge SongLawrence Tibbett, Catherine Dale OwenWriter
Anna ChristieGreta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, Marie DresslerWriter
1931Anna ChristieGreta Garbo, Theo Shall, Hans JunkermannAdaptation
The Secret SixWallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy, Marjorie RambeauDialogue, screenplay
The ChampWallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Roscoe AtesStory
Won the Academy Award for Best Story
1932Blondie of the FolliesMarion Davies, Robert Montgomery, Billie DoveScreenplay, story
EmmaMarie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna LoyStory
1933Peg o' My HeartMarion Davies, Onslow Stevens, J. Farrell MacDonaldAdaptation
Dinner at EightMarie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie BurkeScreenplay
The Prizefighter and the LadyMyrna Loy, Max Baer, Walter Huston, Primo Carnera, Jack DempseyStory
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story
Going HollywoodMarion Davies, Bing Crosby, Fifi D'Orsay, Stuart ErwinStory (uncredited)
SecretsMary Pickford, Leslie HowardWriter
1936CamilleGreta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel BarrymoreScreenplay
RiffraffJean Harlow, Spencer TracyScreenplay, story
Poor Little Rich GirlShirley Temple, Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Gloria Stuart, Michael Whalen, Claude GillingwaterWriter
1937Knight Without ArmourMarlene Dietrich, Robert DonatAdaptation
Love from a StrangerAnn Harding, Basil RathboneAdaption
1940Green HellDouglas Fairbanks, Jr. Vincent Price, Joan Bennett, Alan Hale, Sr., George Sanders, John HowardOriginal story, screenplay

Published works

  • Minnie Flynn. NY: Boni and Liveright, 1925
  • The Secret Six. NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1931 [novelization of her own screenplay]
  • Valley People. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935
  • How to Write and Sell Film Stories. NY: Covici-Friede, 1937
  • Molly, Bless Her. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937
  • Westward The Dream. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Company, 1948
  • The Passions of Linda Lane. NY: Diversey Publications, 1949 [paperback; revised edition of Minnie Flynn]
  • The Powder Keg. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953
  • Off With Their Heads!: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood. NY: The Macmillan Company, 1972 [memoir]
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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