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Lenore Coffee

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Name
  
Lenore Coffee

Role
  
Screenwriter

Books
  
Family portrait


Lenore Coffee httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb5

Born
  
July 13, 1896 (
1896-07-13
)
San Francisco, California, U.S.

Occupation
  
screenwriter, playwright, novelist

Died
  
July 2, 1984, Woodland Hills, California, United States

Spouse
  
William J. Cowen (m. 1926–1964)

Nominations
  
Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay

Movies
  
Young at Heart, Four Daughters, Beyond the Forest, The Great Lie, Cash McCall

Similar People
  
Fannie Hurst, William K Howard, Cameron Hawley, Marion Hargrove, Hal B Wallis

Lenore Jackson Coffee (13 July 1896, San Francisco, California – 2 July 1984, Woodland Hills, California) was an American screenwriter, playwright and novelist.

Contents

Biography

Coffee began her career when she answered an ad requesting a screen story for the actress Clara Kimball Young and was awarded a one-year contract at $50 a week.

She was twice nominated for an Academy Award for best Adapted Screenplay. The first time was for Street of Chance in 1929/30, adapted from the story by Oliver H. P. Garrett, in collaboration with Howard Estabrook; and the second was with Julius J. Epstein in 1938 for Four Daughters, based on Fannie Hurst's short story "Sister Act". Of the studio system, she is quoted as saying:

"They pick your brains, break your heart, ruin your digestion – and what do you get for it? Nothing but a lousy fortune."

Coffee wrote many stories related to experiences women faced during her time, yet they were not met with great reviews and open arms. Coffee spent many years with Warner Bros., which she mentions in her autobiography as to being the only female writer. One hit that came out of that is the film Four Daughters, which she cowrote with Julius J. Epstein.

Coffee married writer and director William J. Cowen. One of her ancestors was U.S. General John Coffee, Chief of Staff to Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.

Published works

  • Storyline: Recollections of a Hollywood Screenwriter. London: Cassell & Company Ltd., 1973. ISBN 0-304-29245-1. (autobiography)
  • Another Time, Another Place. New York: Crown Publishers, 1955. (novel; also published in England as Weep No More by Cassell & Company Ltd.)
  • w/ Cowen, William Joyce. Family Portrait, 1939. (play). The play was performed at The Strand Theatre in London in February 1948, with Fay Compton in the lead role as Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, The theatre critic Peter Forster in The Spectator wrote of her performance that "As Mary, Miss Fay Compton was deeply moving in her own right".
  • References

    Lenore Coffee Wikipedia