caption death_date death_place birth_place birth_date spouse image article_title name
hecht , 1949 18 april 1964 new york city , us new york city , united states 28 february 1894 marie 1 child -rrb- rose caylor -lrb- 1926 -- 1964 ; armstrong his death ; 1 child -rrb- -lrb- 1898 -- 1979 -lrb- -rrb- 1916 -- 1926 ; divorced ; ben hecht.jpg ben hecht
 ben hecht
ben hecht

ben hecht -lrb- 1894 -- 1964 -rrb- was an american screenwriter , director , producer , playwright , journalist and novelist .
he received screen credits , alone or in collaboration , for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films .
he wrote thirty-five books and created some of the most entertaining screenplays and plays in america .
the `` dictionary of literary biography - american screenwriters '' calls him `` one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictures . ''
at the age of 16 , hecht ran away to chicago , where in his own words he `` haunted streets , whorehouses , police stations , courtrooms , theater stages , jails , saloons , slums , madhouses , fires , murders , riots , banquet halls , and bookshops '' .
in the 1910s and early 1920s , hecht became a noted journalist , foreign correspondent , and literary figure .
a prolific writer , hecht received the first academy award for original screenplay , for `` underworld '' -lrb- 1927 -rrb- .
many of the screenplays he worked on are now considered classics .
he also provided story ideas for such films as `` stagecoach '' -lrb- 1939 -rrb- .
film historian richard corliss called him '' `` the '' hollywood screenwriter '' , someone who `` personified hollywood itself . ''
in 1940 , he wrote , produced , and directed , `` angels over broadway '' , which was nominated for best screenplay .
in total , six of his movie screenplays were nominated for academy awards , with two winning .
he became an active zionist shortly before the holocaust began in germany , and wrote articles and plays about the plight of european jews , such as , `` we will never die '' in 1943 and `` a flag is born '' in 1946 .
of his seventy to ninety screenplays , he wrote many anonymously to avoid the british boycott of his work in the late 1940s and early 1950s .
the boycott was a response to hecht 's active support of paramilitary action against british forces in palestine and sabotaging british property there -lrb- see below -rrb- , during which time a supply ship to palestine was named the `` s. s. ben hecht . ''
according to his autobiography , he never spent more than eight weeks on a script .
in 1983 , 19 years after his death , ben hecht was posthumously inducted into the american theater hall of fame .
