Peter Viertel
Encyclopedia
Peter Viertel was an author
and screenwriter
.
parents in Dresden, Germany, the writer and actress Salka Viertel
and the writer Berthold Viertel
. In 1928, his parents moved to Santa Monica, California
where Viertel grew up with his brothers, Hans and Thomas. The home in Santa Monica Canyon
was the site of salons and meetings of the Hollywood "intelligentsia" and the émigré
community of European intellectuals, particularly at the Sunday night tea parties given by Viertel's mother.http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/arc/libraries/feuchtwanger/exiles/viertel.html However, Viertel identified more with Southern California youth culture than with the European one he was exposed to. "The physical aspect of European intellectuals was so totally different from what an American kid wants to be," he told the International Herald Tribune in 1992. "I knew Bert Brecht was close to being a genius, but he was a funny-looking man to me."
Viertel graduated from Dartmouth College
in 1941. He was an enlisted man in the United States Marines in the South Pacific for part of World War II, but after being assigned office work in California (in his memoirs he joked he was a "Remington Raider" in reference to the typewriters they used), he sought and eventually gained work with the O.S.S.
as a second lieutenant. His native German language skills were put to use in Nazi-controlled Europe. Viertel later co-wrote a play titled "The Survivors" with writer Irwin Shaw based upon experiences related to World War II.
Viertel was most famous for his novel White Hunter Black Heart, which was made into a film
starring Clint Eastwood
in 1990. It is a thinly-disguised account of Viertel's experiences working with John Huston
while he made the film The African Queen. The central character is scriptwriter Pete Verrill while the Huston character is called John Wilson. Viertel's opinion of the finished film was tempered by his idea that Huston himself would have preferred a portrayal with more sarcasm.
Of his screenwriting work for Hollywood productions, Viertel said that it was primarily a vehicle for income so that he could continue to write novels.Though he worked closely with movie professionals that he liked such as Billy Wilder
and Huston, Viertel said there was always creative tension.
Viertel was twice married. His first wife was Virginia Ray "Jigee" Schulberg, the ex-wife of the novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg
; she was pregnant with their only child, Christine, when Viertel abandoned her to live with the fashion model Bettina
. His second wife was the actress Deborah Kerr
(from July 23, 1960 until Kerr's death on October 16, 2007); by her, he had two stepdaughters, Melanie and Francesca Bartley. He died nineteen days after Kerr in Marbella
, Spain
; the cause was lymphoma
.
At the time of his death, it was reported that a novel based upon his O.S.S. experiences from World War II was in completed form, as was also a second volume of memoirs.
A filmed documentary by director Michael Scheingraber was in production at the time of Viertel's death. Titled "Peter Viertel - Between the Lines" the film is based upon over 400 minutes of recorded interviews with him.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and 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:...
.
Biography
He was born to JewishJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
parents in Dresden, Germany, the writer and actress Salka Viertel
Salka Viertel
Salka Viertel was an actress and screenwriter. The pianist and composer Eduard Steuermann was her brother. Mrs. Viertel was born Salomea Steuermann in Sambor, a city then in the province of Galicia, which was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but today is in western Ukraine.-Career:She...
and the writer Berthold Viertel
Berthold Viertel
Berthold Viertel , born in Vienna, Austria was a screen writer and film director.-Arrival in America:He was married to screenplay writer and actress Salka Viertel from 30 April 1918 to 20 December 1947. The pair came to Los Angeles in 1928 planning to stay for just three years...
. In 1928, his parents moved to Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
where Viertel grew up with his brothers, Hans and Thomas. The home in Santa Monica Canyon
Santa Monica neighborhoods
The western and northwestern border of Santa Monica, California is the stretch of Santa Monica Bay. On its other sides, the city is bordered by various districts of Los Angeles: the eastern border is Brentwood north of Wilshire Boulevard and West Los Angeles south of Wilshire, the northeastern...
was the site of salons and meetings of the Hollywood "intelligentsia" and the émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
community of European intellectuals, particularly at the Sunday night tea parties given by Viertel's mother.http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/arc/libraries/feuchtwanger/exiles/viertel.html However, Viertel identified more with Southern California youth culture than with the European one he was exposed to. "The physical aspect of European intellectuals was so totally different from what an American kid wants to be," he told the International Herald Tribune in 1992. "I knew Bert Brecht was close to being a genius, but he was a funny-looking man to me."
Viertel graduated from Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1941. He was an enlisted man in the United States Marines in the South Pacific for part of World War II, but after being assigned office work in California (in his memoirs he joked he was a "Remington Raider" in reference to the typewriters they used), he sought and eventually gained work with the O.S.S.
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
as a second lieutenant. His native German language skills were put to use in Nazi-controlled Europe. Viertel later co-wrote a play titled "The Survivors" with writer Irwin Shaw based upon experiences related to World War II.
Viertel was most famous for his novel White Hunter Black Heart, which was made into a film
White Hunter Black Heart
White Hunter Black Heart is a 1990 American film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as John Wilson, based on the book by Peter Viertel. Viertel also co-wrote the script with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy. The film was based on several Golden Age of Hollywood movie producers...
starring Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
in 1990. It is a thinly-disguised account of Viertel's experiences working with John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
while he made the film The African Queen. The central character is scriptwriter Pete Verrill while the Huston character is called John Wilson. Viertel's opinion of the finished film was tempered by his idea that Huston himself would have preferred a portrayal with more sarcasm.
Of his screenwriting work for Hollywood productions, Viertel said that it was primarily a vehicle for income so that he could continue to write novels.Though he worked closely with movie professionals that he liked such as Billy Wilder
Billy 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 Huston, Viertel said there was always creative tension.
Viertel was twice married. His first wife was Virginia Ray "Jigee" Schulberg, the ex-wife of the novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, and his 1957 screenplay for A Face in the...
; she was pregnant with their only child, Christine, when Viertel abandoned her to live with the fashion model Bettina
Simone Micheline Bodin
Simone Micheline Bodin , known professionally as Bettina or Bettina Graziani, was a French fashion model of the 1940s and 1950s and an early muse to the fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy...
. His second wife was the actress Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
(from July 23, 1960 until Kerr's death on October 16, 2007); by her, he had two stepdaughters, Melanie and Francesca Bartley. He died nineteen days after Kerr in Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; the cause was lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
.
At the time of his death, it was reported that a novel based upon his O.S.S. experiences from World War II was in completed form, as was also a second volume of memoirs.
A filmed documentary by director Michael Scheingraber was in production at the time of Viertel's death. Titled "Peter Viertel - Between the Lines" the film is based upon over 400 minutes of recorded interviews with him.
Films
- Saboteur (1942)
- The Hard WayThe Hard Way (1943 film)The Hard Way is a 1943 Warner Bros. drama film directed by Vincent Sherman. The film was based on a story by Irwin Shaw which was reportedly...
(1943) - We Were StrangersWe Were StrangersWe Were Strangers is a 1949 adventure–drama film directed by John Huston and starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield.The film, set in 1933, concerns a group of revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the Cuban regime...
(1949) - RoughshodRoughshod (film)Roughshod is a black-and-white Western film directed by Mark Robson, starring Gloria Grahame and Robert Sterling....
(1949) - Decision Before DawnDecision Before DawnDecision Before Dawn is a 1951 American war film directed by Anatole Litvak, starring Richard Basehart, Oskar Werner, and Hans Christian Blech. It tells the story of the American Army using potentially unreliable German prisoners of war to gather intelligence in the closing days of World War II...
(1951) - The African Queen (1951)
- The VillageThe Village (1953 film)The Village is a 1953 Swiss drama film directed by Leopold Lindtberg.-Cast:* John Justin - Alan Manning* Eva Dahlbeck - Wanda Piwonska* Sigfrit Steiner - Heinrich Meile* Mary Hinton - Miss Worthington* W. Woytecki - Dr. Stefan Zielinski...
(1953) - The Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also Rises (1957 film)The Sun Also Rises is a 1957 film adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name, with the screenplay written by Peter Viertel. It starred Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer and Errol Flynn. Much of it was filmed on location in France and Spain in Cinemascope and color by Deluxe...
(1957) - Les bijoutiers du clair de lune (1958)
- The Old Man and the SeaThe Old Man and the Sea (1958 film)The Old Man and the Sea is a 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy, in a portrayal for which he was nominated for a best actor Oscar. The screenplay was adapted by Peter Viertel from the novella of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, and the film was directed by John Sturges...
(1958) - Le Couteau dans la plaie (1962)
- White Hunter Black HeartWhite Hunter Black HeartWhite Hunter Black Heart is a 1990 American film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as John Wilson, based on the book by Peter Viertel. Viertel also co-wrote the script with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy. The film was based on several Golden Age of Hollywood movie producers...
(1990)
Books
- The Canyon (1940)
- Line of DepartureLine of DepartureLine of Departure is a military term used to denote the starting position for an attack on enemy positions. During the Second World War, the term in use in the British, Canadian and American militaries was Start Line...
(1947) - White Hunter Black HeartWhite Hunter Black HeartWhite Hunter Black Heart is a 1990 American film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as John Wilson, based on the book by Peter Viertel. Viertel also co-wrote the script with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy. The film was based on several Golden Age of Hollywood movie producers...
(1953) - Love Lies Bleeding (1964)
- Bicycle on the Beach (1971)
- American Skin (1984)
- Dangerous Friends: At Large with Huston and Hemingway in the Fifties (1992)
- Loser Deals (1995)
External links
- Obituary in N.Y. Times, 8 November 2007
- Peter Viertel (fan-site) Images, letters, bio and other information