George Axelrod
Encyclopedia
George Axelrod was an American
screenwriter
, producer
, playwright
and film director
, best known for his play, The Seven Year Itch
(1952), which was adapted into a movie of the same name
starring Marilyn Monroe
. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote
's Breakfast at Tiffany's
and also adapted
Richard Condon
's The Manchurian Candidate
(1962).
actress, and Herman Axelrod, who worked in real estate
. His mother was of Scottish and English descent and his father Russia
n Jewish. He is the father of lawyer Peter Axelrod, painting contractor and writer Steven Axelrod, actress Nina Axelrod
and stepfather of screenwriter Jonathan Axelrod (who married the actress Illeana Douglas
).
, the New York-born Axelrod found work writing scripts for radio programs, including The Shadow
, Midnight and Grand Ole Opry
, eventually branching into television. He said he contributed to or collaborated on more than 400 TV and radio scripts and wrote for top comedians, including Jerry Lewis
and Dean Martin
before earning breakout success with his 1952 stage comedy, The Seven Year Itch
, a risque social satire about a middle-class man who has an affair while his wife and children are on vacation. The Seven Year Itch was first presented by Courtney Burr and Elliot Nugent at the Fulton Theatre, New York City, on July 15, 1952.
as a playwright waiting anxiously in a theatre district bar for the newspaper reviews of his first play to hit the streets. Based on his own experiences on the opening night of The Seven Year Itch, the one-hour play was presented as the November 30, 1953 episode of Studio One. He appeared on television himself occasionally as a guest panelist on What's My Line?
and starring Marilyn Monroe
. The plot was altered so that the husband (Tom Ewell
) only fantasizes about having an affair.
Axelrod's next stage hit was Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
, a Faust
ian comedy about a fan magazine writer (Orson Bean
) selling his soul to the Devil
(in the guise of a literary agent
) to become a successful screenwriter
. It ran for more than a year on Broadway in 1955–56 and received much attention in the national press thanks to its star, Jayne Mansfield
. It was adapted for a film, but 20th Century Fox
had director/screenwriter Frank Tashlin
change the story to a satire on television advertising
and throw out all of Axelrod's characters except Rita Marlowe (with Mansfield recreating her stage role). Axelrod was contemptuous of the 1957 movie, saying he didn't go see it because the studio "never used my story, my play or my script."
In 1959–60, Lauren Bacall
starred in his comic play Goodbye Charlie
which ran for 109 performances, followed by a film with Debbie Reynolds
. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Axelrod was one of the best paid writers in Hollywood, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote
's Breakfast at Tiffany's
. He was highly regarded for his adaptation of Richard Condon
's novel for director John Frankenheimer
's Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate
(1962) starring Laurence Harvey
and Frank Sinatra
. Axelrod, who co-produced, considered it his best screen adaptation. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
in November 1963, the movie was taken out of circulation and wasn't re-released until 1988, when it became a box office hit and was deemed by critics to be a classic of American cinema.
Axelrod wrote the original screenplay for How to Murder Your Wife (1965), directed by Richard Quine
with Jack Lemmon
, Verna Lisi and Terry-Thomas
. In 1966, Axelrod directed Lord Love a Duck
, and two years later, he directed The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968). After a decade hiatus, he returned to films in 1979, providing the screenplay for an unsuccessful remake of The Lady Vanishes. Subsequent contributions include the scripts for Frankenheimer's The Holcroft Covenant (1985) and The Fourth Protocol (1987).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, best known for his play, The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch (play)
The Seven Year Itch is a 1952 three-act play written by George Axelrod starring Tom Ewell and Vanessa Brown.The titular phrase, which refers to declining interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, has been used by psychologists....
(1952), which was adapted into a movie of the same name
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role...
starring Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
's Breakfast at Tiffany's
Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella)
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.-Plot:...
and also adapted
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
Richard Condon
Richard Condon
Richard Thomas Condon was a prolific and popular American political novelist whose satiric works were generally presented in the form of thrillers or semi-thrillers...
's The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate , by Richard Condon, is a political thriller novel about the son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for the Communist Party....
(1962).
Early life and family
Axelrod was born in New York City, New York, the son of Beatrice Carpenter, a silent filmSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
actress, and Herman Axelrod, who worked in real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
. His mother was of Scottish and English descent and his father Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Jewish. He is the father of lawyer Peter Axelrod, painting contractor and writer Steven Axelrod, actress Nina Axelrod
Nina Axelrod
Nina Kether Axelrod is an American actress who appeared in television and films mainly during the late 1970s through the early 1980s. Since the early 1990s, she has worked as a casting director on films....
and stepfather of screenwriter Jonathan Axelrod (who married the actress Illeana Douglas
Illeana Douglas
Illeana Douglas is an American actress, director, screenwriter, and producer.-Background:Douglas is a granddaughter of the actor Melvyn Douglas and his first wife, artist Rosalind Hightower, and has said that her grandfather's performance in Being There, in particular, was influential on her own...
).
Radio and Broadway
After serving in the Army Signal Corps during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the New York-born Axelrod found work writing scripts for radio programs, including The Shadow
The Shadow
The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...
, Midnight and Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
, eventually branching into television. He said he contributed to or collaborated on more than 400 TV and radio scripts and wrote for top comedians, including Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
and Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
before earning breakout success with his 1952 stage comedy, The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role...
, a risque social satire about a middle-class man who has an affair while his wife and children are on vacation. The Seven Year Itch was first presented by Courtney Burr and Elliot Nugent at the Fulton Theatre, New York City, on July 15, 1952.
Television
Axelrod's overnight success prompted him to write a seriocomic teleplay, Confessions of a Nervous Man, starring Art CarneyArt Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....
as a playwright waiting anxiously in a theatre district bar for the newspaper reviews of his first play to hit the streets. Based on his own experiences on the opening night of The Seven Year Itch, the one-hour play was presented as the November 30, 1953 episode of Studio One. He appeared on television himself occasionally as a guest panelist on What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
Films
The Broadway success of The Seven Year Itch led to the successful 1955 film directed by Billy WilderBilly Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
and starring Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. The plot was altered so that the husband (Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
) only fantasizes about having an affair.
Axelrod's next stage hit was Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (play)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is an original stage comedy in three acts and four scenes that opened on Broadway October 13, 1955, starring Orson Bean , Martin Gabel , Jayne Mansfield , Harry Clark , Carol Grace , Lou Gallo , William Thourlby and Walter Matthau .It...
, a Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
ian comedy about a fan magazine writer (Orson Bean
Orson Bean
Orson Bean is an American film, television, and Broadway actor. He appeared frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including being a long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth....
) selling his soul to the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
(in the guise of a literary agent
Literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
) to become a successful screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. It ran for more than a year on Broadway in 1955–56 and received much attention in the national press thanks to its star, Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
. It was adapted for a film, but 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
had director/screenwriter Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
change the story to a satire on television advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
and throw out all of Axelrod's characters except Rita Marlowe (with Mansfield recreating her stage role). Axelrod was contemptuous of the 1957 movie, saying he didn't go see it because the studio "never used my story, my play or my script."
In 1959–60, Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
starred in his comic play Goodbye Charlie
Goodbye Charlie
Goodbye Charlie is a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's play Goodbye, Charlie and starred Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis...
which ran for 109 performances, followed by a film with Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Axelrod was one of the best paid writers in Hollywood, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
's Breakfast at Tiffany's
Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella)
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.-Plot:...
. He was highly regarded for his adaptation of Richard Condon
Richard Condon
Richard Thomas Condon was a prolific and popular American political novelist whose satiric works were generally presented in the form of thrillers or semi-thrillers...
's novel for director John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
's Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate , by Richard Condon, is a political thriller novel about the son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for the Communist Party....
(1962) starring Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. Axelrod, who co-produced, considered it his best screen adaptation. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in November 1963, the movie was taken out of circulation and wasn't re-released until 1988, when it became a box office hit and was deemed by critics to be a classic of American cinema.
Axelrod wrote the original screenplay for How to Murder Your Wife (1965), directed by Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...
with Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, Verna Lisi and Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
. In 1966, Axelrod directed Lord Love a Duck
Lord Love a Duck
Lord Love a Duck is a 1966 black comedy starring Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld. The film was a satire of popular culture at the time, its targets ranging from progressive education to Beach Party films...
, and two years later, he directed The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968). After a decade hiatus, he returned to films in 1979, providing the screenplay for an unsuccessful remake of The Lady Vanishes. Subsequent contributions include the scripts for Frankenheimer's The Holcroft Covenant (1985) and The Fourth Protocol (1987).
Novels
Axelrod was also an author of three novels: Blackmailer, a comic mystery; Beggar's Choice, a comedy of role reversal; and Where Am I Now When I Need Me?, a humorous overview of the Hollywood scene.Selected filmography
- Phffft!Phffft!Phffft! is a 1954 black and white romantic comedy starring Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Jack Carson and featuring Kim Novak, in a small but notable role...
(1954) (screenplay) - The Seven Year ItchThe Seven Year Itch (play)The Seven Year Itch is a 1952 three-act play written by George Axelrod starring Tom Ewell and Vanessa Brown.The titular phrase, which refers to declining interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, has been used by psychologists....
(1955) (play) - Bus StopBus Stop (film)Bus Stop is a 1956 film directed by Joshua Logan for 20th Century Fox, starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray and Hope Lange...
(1956) (screenplay) - Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 American satiric comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall, with Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, Mickey Hargitay, and a cameo by Groucho Marx...
(1957) (play) - Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) (screenplay)
- The Manchurian CandidateThe Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
(1962) (screenplay, producer) - Goodbye CharlieGoodbye CharlieGoodbye Charlie is a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's play Goodbye, Charlie and starred Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis...
(1964) (screenplay) - Lord Love a DuckLord Love a DuckLord Love a Duck is a 1966 black comedy starring Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld. The film was a satire of popular culture at the time, its targets ranging from progressive education to Beach Party films...
(1966) (director) - The Secret Life of an American WifeThe Secret Life of an American WifeThe Secret Life of an American Wife is a 1968 comedy film written and directed by George Axelrod. The film was released by 20th Century Fox in 1968, and was considered a box-office failure. It features a music score by Billy May...
(1968) (director, screenplay)