biography
| name: |
Kaufman, George S(imon)
|
pronunciation:
[kowfman]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1889–1961)
|
| biography:
| Playwright and director, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. After brief periods studying law and as a salesman, he began to contribute humorous material to newspapers. By 1915 he was writing for the theatre section of the New York Tribune, moving to the New York Times (1917–30). His first successful play, Dulcy (1921), was in collaboration with Marc Connelly, and during the next 35 years he enjoyed almost unparalleled success, writing a string of sophisticated satires of contemporary life for the stage and screen in collaboration with others, including Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, Ring Lardner, Moss Hart, Alexander Woolcott, and Robert Sherwood; his only success by himself was The Butter and Egg Man (1925). After 1928 he staged most of his own plays, and although Hollywood constantly beckoned, he was never really comfortable there. With Morris Ryskind he wrote one of the most successful Marx Brothers scripts, A Night at the Opera (1935), and shared a Pulitzer with Ryskind for the book to the musical, Of Thee I Sing (1931). In collaboration with Moss Hart he wrote You Can't Take It With You (1936, Pulitzer) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939). Other works include The Solid Gold Cadillac (with Howard Teichmann, 1953) |
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