Richard Brooks

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Richard Brooks(May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) ó jẹ́ àkọ̀wé ẹ̀ro Alagbátà ti American, òlùdarí fiimu,nkòwé àti aṣagbejade fiimu. Wọ́n yan fún oscars
mẹ́jò nìdí isẹ rẹ́￼￼rwọ́n mọ s rBlackboard Jungle(1955),Cat on a Hot Tin Roof(1958),Elmer Gantry(1960; for which he won theAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay),In Cold Blood(1967) andLooking for Mr. Goodbar(1977).
Brory,Mayer Sulzberger Junior High Schooll
g the name Richard Brooks professionally. He changed his name legally in 1943.
joined the staff of theAtlantic City Press-Union.He moved to New York to work for theWorld-Telegram;shortly afterward he took a job with radio stationWNEWfor a larger paycheck. As a newsman for the station, he reported and read stories on the air and provided commentary.
he film industry. He also may have been trying to escape a marriage; a legal document indicates he was married at least part of the time he lived in New York.
contributed to a few films and wrote two screenplays for the popular actressMaria Montez, known as the "Queen of Technicolor.e Corpsin 1943 during World War II.
Brooks never served overseas during the war, instead working in the Marine Corps film unit at Quantico, Virginia, and at times at Camp Pendleton, California. In his two years in uniform he learned more about the basics of filmmaking, including writing and editing documentaries. He also found time to write a novel,The Brick Foxhole,a searing portrait of some stateside soldiers who were tainted by religious and racial bigotry, and opposed to homosexuals. In 1944 he divorced his wife, then known in films as Jean Brooks. Later he said he had been a self-centered husband and unsuitable for what she needed.
His book was published in 1945 to favorable reviews. It was adapted as the filmCrossfire(1947) with the homosexual element removed. It was the first major Hollywood film to deal withanti-Semitism, receiving an Oscar nomination. The novel drew the attention of indepeMark Hellinger, who hired Brooks as a screenwriter after he left the Marines.
Working for Hellinger brought Brooks back to the film industry and led to a long friendship with actorHumphrey Bogart, a close friend of the producer. Brooks provided an uncredited screen story forThe Killers(1946), which introduced actorBurt Lancaster. He wrote the scripts for two other Hellinger films, notablyBrute Force(1947), also starring Lancaster. After Hellinger died suddenly in 1947, Brooks wrote screenplays for threeWarner Brothersfilms, includingKey Largo(1948), starring Bogart and wifeLauren Bacalland directed and co-written byJohn Huston, another Brooks mentor. Huston and Brooks had both worked together previously in the uncredited rewrite forThe Killers, and Huston would be the only co-writer Brooks ever had.While filmingKey Largo, Huston allowed Brooks to be on theKey Largoset during shooting, so that he could learn more about directing a Hollywood film.
Brooks wrote two more novels shortly after the war,The Boiling Point(1948) andThe Producer(1951), a thinly disguised portrait of Mark Hellinger. It may also have contained autobiographical elements about Brooks. In 1946 he married again, to Harriette Levin, who had no apparent connection to the film industry. Their marriage lasted until 1957, when she sought a default divorce.
Success as a screenwriter with Hellinger and Warner Brothers led Brooks to a contract withMGMand the promise of a chance to direct. He wrote two screenplays for the studio before he was given the opportunity. His first film as writer and director,Crisis(1950), starredCary Grantas a brain surgeon forced to save the life of a South American dictator, played byJosé Ferrer. His second film,The Light Touch(1951), an art-theftcaper filmstarringStewart Granger, was shot in Italy.
Brooks recounted useful advice he received just before his directorial debut from cinematographerKarl Freundwhile speaking at theAmerican Film Institute. Freund gave Brooks reels of 16mm film, calling them "Lesson Number One." When Brooks watched the reels at home, he saw that they were pornography. The next day, Freund explained: "I produced them. My pictures, 1922. Many times you will be wondering, do you put the camera here, or up here, or down here? Maybe you make the scene a little bigger, or a little smaller. Lesson Number One. Get to the fucking point."
Brooks came into his own when he directed an original screenplay,Deadline – U.S.A.(1952), for20th Century-Fox, starring his friend Humphrey Bogart. Based on the closing of theNew York World, the film was partgangster picture, part newspaper drama. At its core was an issue Brooks cared about: the consolidation of the newspaper industry and its effect on the diversity of voices in the press. The film remains one of the more highly regarded dramas about American newspapers.
Brooks directed four more films before achieving an unqualified hit withBlackboard Jungle(1955) starringGlenn Ford. Based on a best-seller byEvan Hunter, tahe film was shocking for its time in its presentation of juvenile delinquency. It also offered a career-making supporting role for  black actor,Sidney Poitier, and early roles for actorsVic Morrow,Jamie FarrandPaul Mazursky. Brooks chose to begin and end the film with the song "Rock Around the Clock", bringingrock 'n' rollto a major Hollywood production for the first time and sparking a No. 1 hit forBill Haley and the Comets.Blackboard Junglewas nominated for an Oscar for its screenplay, and was MGM's top moneymaker that year.
In 1955, Brooks was one of four Americanauteurfilmmakers named as "rebels" by the French magazineCahiers du Cinéma.Box-office success was what gave the writer/director more freedom at MGM, but Brooks also recognized that he would never have complete control of his films while under contract. He determined to avoid writing original screenplays and focused on adaptations of best-sellers or classic novels. He later noted that adapting a novel gave him a head start on developing the story structure required for a screenplay.
He spent the rest of the decade at MGM, where his most notable film was an adaptation ofTennessee Williams's sexually charged playCat on a Hot Tin Roof(1958). A huge hit for MGM – it drew more money and a larger audience than any other film Brooks ever directed – the film revived the career ofElizabeth Taylorand made a star ofPaul Newman. It brought Brooks his first Oscar nomination for directing and the first Best Picture nomination in his directorial career.
Brooks spent the last third of his film career working in relative independence. In 1958, he signed a non-exclusive, seven-year writer-director deal withColumbia Picturesthat was to earn him over $1 million.He followed the success ofCat on a Hot Tin Roofwith an independent production forUnited ArtistsofElmer Gantry(1960), based on the novel bySinclair Lewis. The story of a phony preacher, played byBurt Lancaster, and a sincere revivalist, played byJean Simmons, was edgy for the time. As it had forBlackboard JungleandCat on a Hot Tin Roof, controversy accompanied the film's release and helped bring people to theaters. The movie received five Academy Award nominations, including one for best picture, and won Oscars for Lancaster as lead actor, forShirley Jonesas supporting actress, and for Brooks' script.
Brooks adapted and directed another Tennessee Williams play,Sweet Bird of Youth(1962).Ed Begleywon a Best Supporting Oscar for his role in the film. While popular and well-received critically, the MGM production did not duplicate the success of the previous Williams film. A dream project followed, an adaptation for Columbia Pictures ofJoseph Conrad'sLord Jim(1965), but the lavish film proved to be a misfire at the box office and with most critics. Brooks had spent years writing the script and planning the most expensive project of his career. He had assembled a stellar cast led byPeter O'Toole,Eli Wallach,Jack Hawkins,Paul Lukas, andJames Mason. While beautifully photographed in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia byFreddie Youngand scored byBronisław Kaper,Lord Jimdid not find the audience that had madeDavid Lean's epicsLawrence of ArabiaandDoctor Zhivagosuch notable hits of the 1960s.
To recover professionally from the failure ofLord Jim,Brooks surprised Hollywood by choosing to adapt a minor western novel about a wealthy husband who hires mercenaries to rescue his kidnapped wife from Mexican bandits. Brooks worked quickly and within a year releasedThe Professionals(1966), which became Columbia's biggest hit that year. The slick crowd-pleaser starred Burt Lancaster,Lee Marvin,Robert RyanandWoody Strodeas "the professionals" withJack Palanceas the bandit leader andClaudia Cardinaleas the kidnapped wife. The film received Oscar nominations for Brooks' screenplay and direction, and forConrad Hall's cinematography. It has been lauded as one of the most entertaining westerns ever filmed.
Brooks landed the property of the decade when authorTruman Capoteselected him to adapt his best-selling bookIn Cold Blood. Once again rejecting the methodical pace that had slowed him with other productions, Brooks worked quickly to adapt the "nonfiction novel," as Capote called it. As a reporter, Brooks also conducted his own research into the murders of four members of a Kansas farm family and the lives of the two drifters responsible for the crime. Brooks rejected Columbia's suggestion that he hire stars to play the killers and instead cast two relative unknowns,Scott WilsonandRobert Blake. He resisted the studio on another point, shooting the film in black and white rather than color because he thought it was a more frightening medium. He used locations where the events occurred, including the house where the family had been killed.In Cold Bloodhad a documentary style and was considered among the films of the mid-1960s that ushered in a more mature Hollywood style. Brooks received double Oscar nominations; cinematographerConrad Halland composerQuincy Jonesalso were nominated.
The Bloodmarked the apex of Bro that followed, he wrote and directed just six more films. Of note wasThe Happy Endint was the kind of low-key personal film more likely to come from Europe than an American director. The film earned an Oscar nomination for star Jean Simmons. (Her own marriage to Brooks ended in divorce in 1980.)
In 1972 Brooks was hired byColumbia Picturesto directFirst Blood,withBette Davisto be cast as a psychiatrist and eitherLee MarvinorBurt Lancasterto be cast asSheriff Will Teasle.  Brooks intended the film to be a commentary on the perceptions ofveteransfrom bothWorld War IIand theVietnam War. He also intended to make Teasle a more sympathetic character, who at the end of the film would have ordered his men to drop their guns to try to reason withJohn Rambobefore Rambo was shot by unknown gunman. The film was cancelled because the Vietnam War had not ended, and the rights were sold toWarner Bros. Pictures.
he released another controversial film, an adaptation ofJudith Rossner's 1975 novelLooking for Mr. Goodbar.'Goodbar'starredDiane Keatonas a Catholic scingles bars. Brooks made the film on a tight budget, and its frank treatment of sex and its horrific storyline brought praise and condemnation and sold tickets. He ended his career withWrong Is Right(1982), a satire about the news media and world unrest starringSean Connery,and a gambling addiction film withRyan O'NealandCatherine HicksinFever Pitch(1985). 'Fever Pitch' featured a story about a renowned Los Angeles sportswriter who becomes a sports gambling addict. Brooks himself had been a sportswriter when a young man. Both movies were critical and commercial failures.
Brooks tried developing other projects in the last years of his life. He suffered from heart ailments and a stroke before dying at his home in 1992 at the age of 79.
In 1960, he marriedJean Simmons, after her divorce fromStewart Granger. Brooks helped to raise Tracy, Simmons' daughter by Granger. The couple had another daughter, Kate, together in 1961. They separated in 1977 and were legally divorced in 1980. Previously, Brooks had been married for 11 years to Harriette Levin, a relationship that also ended in divorce.
Brooks hated bigotry, which was a central theme of his novelThe Brick Foxhole, his co-written screenplay forStorm Warning(1951), and his first western,The Last Hunt(1956). Racial division and reconciliation was also at the heart ofSomething of Value(1957). He sawBlackboard Jungleas encouraging teachers to continue striving to help their students and as reassuring them that they can make a difference. Opposed to the death penalty, he usedIn Cold Bloodto suggest that executing criminals solves nothing and only creates more violence.
While he worked in the studio system for most of the 1940s and 1950s, Brooks often clashed with studio policies about the look and feel of films and the stories they presented. He also chafed against the Production Code's limitations on subject matter and expression. His goal as a filmmaker was total control of a production, and he achieved that with most films after the success ofCat on a Hot Tin Roof. The failure ofLord Jimthreatened that independence. Brooks responded by becoming a fast and efficient filmmaker, operating with a tight budget and often forgoing a high up-front salary in exchange for a guarantee of control.
Brooks was developing a reputation as a hard-driving, difficult and perpetually angry man as early as his tenure with radio station WNEW in the late 1930s. He was not averse to quitting a job when in conflict with those in charge—as he did while directing at the Mill Pond Theater in 1940 and writing for Universal in 1943. At MGM he was known for almost daily eruptions of anger, often aimed at his crew and sometimes at his cast. That did not change even after he was the producer of his films, and he was known throughout the industry as a talented filmmaker yet a difficult man to deal with.Debbie Reynoldsrecounts that, while as a young and relatively inexperienced actress filmingThe Catered Affair(1956), Brooks hit her in the face and had to be pulled away from further assault by the assistant director. Later during filming, a heavy piece of equipment fell on his foot, breaking it, and the crew were noticeably slow in removing it which Reynolds attests to a general dislike of the director.
Brooks was much the same way in his personal life. He readily acknowledged that he was a trying husband and that his work was the most important activity in his life. He was not interested in Hollywood's social scene, preferring to entertain guests at his home with tennis and movies when he wasn't working on screenplays or other projects. Yet his wife Jean Simmons found him to be a humorous, stimulating husband and a loving father to their daughters. But from all accounts, he was a "tough as nails" father as well.
Brooks was one of the relatively few filmmakers whose careers bridged the transition from the classic studio system to the independent productions that marked the 1960s and beyond. He was also among the postwar writer-directors who made some of their best films as they struggled to break free of industry censorship. His legacy is that of a filmmaker who sought independence in a collaborative art and tried to bring his own vision to the screen.
Surrounded by family (Jean Simmons and daughters) and longtime friend actorGene Kelly, Brooks died fromcongestive heart failurein 1992 at his house in Coldwater Canyon inStudio City, California. He was interred in theHillside Memorial Park CemeteryinCulver City, California
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Daniel, Douglass K. (2011).Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks. University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-0299251246.
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