Pierre Frondaie
Pierre Frondaie (born Albert René Fraudet; 25 April 1884 – 25 September 1948) was a French poet, novelist, and playwright. Biography. Pierre Frondaie – né Albert René Fraudet – was born in 1884 in Paris to an upper-middle-class family. He began writing as a teenager and soon devoted himself to the theme that would come to define his career as a man of letters, namely love and its vicissitudes. His success came early. The French stage legend Sarah Bernhardt fostered his talents as an actor and playwright, producing and acting in one of his plays during a triumphant American  tour. In 1925, Frondaie published "L'Homme à l'Hispano" ("The Man in the Hispano-Suiza"), the novel that would go on to become his bestseller, translated in 15 languages. The book inspired a successful play, staged in Paris in 1928, and two film adaptations (the first by Julien Duvivier in 1926, the second by Jean Epstein in 1933). Frondaie soon caught the attention of Hollywood, then in its infancy, where several cinematographic adaptations were made of his works for an English-speaking audience by Paramount Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn. In 1928, Howard Hawks directed "Fazil", based on Frondaie’s play "L'Insoumise