Occupation Writer, screenwriter Years active 1932–1956 | Name Frank Partos | |
Died December 23, 1956, Los Angeles, California, United States Awards Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama, Writers Guild of America Award - The Robert Meltzer Award Nominations Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Movies The Uninvited, The Snake Pit, Stranger on the Third Floor, The House on Telegrap, Honolulu Similar People Lewis Allen, Charles Brackett, Charles Lang, Anatole Litvak, Dodie Smith | ||
The Snake Pit 1948 Trailer | Olivia de Havilland | Mark Stevens
Frank Partos (2 July 1901, Budapest - 23 December 1956, Los Angeles) an American screenwriter, of Hungarian Jewish origin, and an early executive committee member of the Screen Actors Guild, which he helped found.
Contents
- The Snake Pit 1948 Trailer Olivia de Havilland Mark Stevens
- Emigration from Europe
- Career
- Selected filmography
- References
Emigration from Europe
Born in Budapest, Hungary, on 2 July 1901, Ferenc Pártos began as a clerk and, sailed to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S/S Mount Carroll, which departed the Port of Hamburg, Germany, on April 28, 1921 and arrived at the Port of New York on May 10. According to the ship's passenger manifest, his destination was to his stepfather Ignatz Reitzer of 214 Hope Avenue, in Passaic, New Jersey.
Career
He arrived in California in the late 1920s with a letter of introduction to Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Partos was given a position as a reader and later given a book by Vicki Baum to write a synopsis. Thalberg decided to make Grand Hotel (1932) based on that synopsis and had Partos work as a screenwriter on the project. Partos did not get screen credit and, because of that slight, left MGM.
In the 1930s, he was a staff writer at Paramount Pictures, during the early years to the talkie era. In 1939 he moved to RKO Radio Pictures, where he collaborated on the early noir film Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). During the mid-30's Partos worked extensively with screenwriter Charles Brackett, and was Brackett's first choice for a writing partner. In 1944, he co-wrote the screenplay for The Uninvited, an early haunted house story starring Ray Milland and Gail Russell. He shared an Academy Award nomination for The Snake Pit (1948) with Millen Brand. He also co-wrote the 1951 film noir The House on Telegraph Hill, directed by Robert Wise. Partos died December 23, 1956.