Frances Marion

Infobox actor
name = Frances Marion


image_size = 180px
caption =
birthname = Marion Benson Owens
birthdate = birth date|1888|11|18
birthplace = San Francisco, California, USA
deathdate = death date and age|1973|05|12|1888|11|18
occupation = Writer, Screenwriter
spouse = Fred Thomson (1919-1928)
George W. Hill (1930-1933)
academyawards = Best Story
1930 "The Big House"
1932 "The Champ"

Frances Marion (November 18, 1888Beauchamp. 1997] - May 12, 1973) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos

Biography

Born Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco, California, she worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during World War I. On her return home, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired as a writing assistant by "Lois Weber Productions", a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber.

As "Frances Marion", she wrote many scripts for actress/filmmaker Mary Pickford, including "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" and "The Poor Little Rich Girl", as well as scripts for numerous other successful films of the 1920s and 1930s. She became the first female to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1930 for the film "The Big House", she received the Academy Award for Best Story for "The Champ" in 1932. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films. She directed and occasionally appeared in some of Mary Pickford's early movies.

She was married four times, first to Wesley de Lappe, and later to Robert Pike, both prior to changing her name. In 1919, she wed Fred Thomson, who co-starred with Mary Pickford in "The Love Light" in 1921. After Thomson's unexpected death in 1928, she married director George W. Hill in 1930, but that marriage ended in divorce in 1933.

For many years she was under contract to MGM Studios but independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing stage plays and novels.

Frances Marion published a memoir "Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood" in 1972 and died in 1973.

Afterward

Author Cari Beauchamp wrote "" in 1997. A New York Times "Notable Book." In 2000, with support from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the book was made into a television documentary which aired on Turner Classic Movies.

Film Credits

* "The New York Hat" (1912, contributing writer)
* "The Foundling" (1915, screenplay, story)
* "A Daughter of the Sea" (1915, story "The Fisher Girl")
* "Esmeralda" (1915, writer)
* "Rags" (1915, writer)
* "A Sister's Burden" (1915, writer)
* "Camille" (1915/I, scenario)
* "Fanchon, the Cricket" (1915/I, uncredited)
* "The Yellow Passport" (1916, scenario)
* "The Foundling" (1916, scenario)
* "The Feast of Life" (1916, screenplay, story)
* "The Battle of Hearts" (1916, story)
* "A Circus Romance" (1916, story)
* "The Rise of Susan" (1916, writer)
* "All Man" (1916, writer)
* "Bought and Paid For" (1916, writer)
* "The Heart of a Hero" (1916, writer)
* "The Hidden Scar" (1916, writer)
* "The Gilded Cage" (1916, writer)
* "The Revolt" (1916, writer)
* "Friday the 13th" (1916, writer)
* "The Summer Girl" (1916, writer)
* "A Woman's Way" (1916, writer)
* "The Crucial Test" (1916, writer)
* "Vie de Bohème, La" (1916, writer)
* "The Social Highwayman" (1916, writer)
* "Then I'll Come Back to You" (1916, writer)
* "Tangled Fates" (1916/I, writer)
* "A Hungry Heart" (1917, scenario)
* "Beloved Adventuress" (1917, screenplay, story)
* "The Stolen Paradise" (1917, screenplay, story)
* "A Girl's Folly" (1917, story and scenario)
* "The Little Princess" (1917, writer)
* "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm"(1917, writer)
* "The Amazons" (1917, writer)
* "The Divorce Game" (1917, writer)
* "The Crimson Dove" (1917, writer)
* "Darkest Russia" (1917, writer)
* "Forget-Me-Not" (1917, writer)
* "As Man Made Her" (1917, writer)
* "The Social Leper" (1917, writer)
* "The Poor Little Rich Girl" (1917, writer)
* "The Web of Desire" (1917, writer)
* "A Square Deal" (1917, writer)
* "Tillie Wakes Up" (1917, writer)
* "On Dangerous Ground" (1917, writer)
* "A Woman Alone" (1917, writer)
* "Stella Maris" (1918, photoplay)
* "How Could You, Jean?" (1918, scenario)
* "The Temple of Dusk" (1918, screenplay, story)
* "The Goat" (1918, screenplay, story)
* "The City of Dim Faces" (1918, screenplay, story)
* "Johanna Enlists" (1918, writer)
* "He Comes Up Smiling" (1918, writer)
* "M'Liss" (1918, writer)
* "Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley" (1918, written by)
* "The Cinema Murder" (1919, scenario)
* "Anne of Green Gables" (1919, writer)
* "A Regular Girl" (1919, writer)
* "The Dark Star" (1919, writer)
* "The Misleading Widow" (1919, writer)
* "Pollyanna" (1920, adaptation)
* "The Flapper" (1920, screenplay, story)
* "The Restless Sex" (1920, writer)
* "The World and His Wife" (1920, writer)
* "Humoresque" (1920, writer)
* "The Love Light" (1921) director
* "Just Around the Corner" (1921) director
* "The Love Light" (1921, story, uncredited, written by)
* "Just Around the Corner" (1921, writer)
* "Straight Is the Way" (1921, writer)
* "Sonny" (1922, adaptation)
* "The Toll of the Sea" (1922, scenario, uncredited, story)
* "Minnie" (1922, titles)
* "East Is West" (1922, writer)
* "The Eternal Flame" (1922, writer)
* "The Primitive Lover" (1922, writer)
* "Back Pay" (1922, writer)
* "The Song of Love" (1923) director
* "The Song of Love" (1923, adaptation)
* "Within the Law" (1923, adaptation)
* "The Voice from the Minaret" (1923, adaptation)
* "Potash and Perlmutter" (1923, writer)
* "The French Doll" (1923, writer)
* "The Love Piker" (1923, writer)
* "The Nth Commandment" (1923, writer)
* "Cytherea" (1924, adaptation)
* "Secrets" (1924, adaptation)
* "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln" (1924, screenplay, story)
* "Galloping Gallagher" (1924, uncredited)
* "The Mask of Lopez" (1924, uncredited)
* "Thundering Hoofs" (1924, uncredited, unconfirmed)
* "Sundown" (1924, writer)
* "In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter" (1924, writer)
* "Tarnish" (1924, writer)
* "Through the Dark" (1924, writer)
* "Stella Dallas" (1925, adaptation)
* "Simon the Jester" (1925, adaptation)
* "Graustark" (1925, adaptation)
* "Zander the Great" (1925, adaptation)
* "His Supreme Moment" (1925, adaptation)
* "A Thief in Paradise" (1925, adaptation)
* "Ridin' the Wind" (1925, story) as Frank M
* "Lazybones" (1925, writer)
* "Thank You" (1925, writer)
* "The Dark Angel" (1925, writer)
* "Lightnin'" (1925, writer)
* "The Lady" (1925, writer)
* "The Scarlet Letter" (1926, adaptation and scenario, titles)
* "The Winning of Barbara Worth" (1926, adaptation)
* "The Son of the Sheik" (1926, adaptation)
* "Paris at Midnight" (1926, adaptation)
* "Partners Again" (1926, adaptation)
* "Lone Hand Saunders" (1926, story) as Frank M
* "Hands Across the Border" (1926, story) as Frank M
* "The Tough Guy" (1926, story) as Frank M
* "The First Year" (1926, writer)
* "The Two-Gun Man" (1926, writer) as Frank M
* "The Red Mill" (1927, adaptation, screenplay)
* "Love" (1927, continuity)
* "Jesse James" (1927, screenplay) as Frank M
* "Silver Comes Through" (1927, story) as Frank M
* "Don Mike" (1927, story) as Frank M
* "Madame Pompadour" (1927, writer)
* "The Callahans and the Murphys" (1927, writer) as Frank M
* "The Cossacks" (1928, adaptation, screenplay)
* "The Wind" (1928, scenario)
* "The Awakening" (1928, story)
* "Kit Carson" (1928, story, as Frank M
* "The Masks of the Devil" (1928, writer)
* "Excess Baggage" (1928, writer)
* "Bringing Up Father" (1928, writer)
* "Pioneer Scout" (1928, writer) as Frank M
* "The Sunset Legion" (1928, writer, as Frank M
* "Their Own Desire" (1929, screenplay)
* "Let Us Be Gay" (1930, dialogue)
* "Min and Bill" (1930, dialogue, scenario)
* "The Big House" (1930, dialogue, story)
* "Good News" (1930, scenario)
* "Wu Li Chang" (1930, writer)
* "Presidio, El" (1930, writer)
* "The Rogue Song" (1930, writer)
* "Anna Christie" (1930, writer)
* "Forever Yours" (1930, writer)
* "Anna Christie" (1931, adaptation)
* "The Secret Six" (1931, dialogue, screenplay)
* "Révolte dans la prison" (1931, writer)
* "Menschen hinter Gittern" (1931, writer)
* "The Champ" (1931/I, story)
* "Blondie of the Follies" (1932, screenplay, story)
* "Emma" (1932, story)
* "Cynara" (1932, writer)
* "Peg o' My Heart" (1933, adaptation)
* "Dinner at Eight" (1933, screenplay)
* "The Prizefighter and the Lady" (1933, story)
* "Going Hollywood" (1933, story, uncredited)
* "Secrets" (1933, writer)
* "Camille" (1936, screenplay)
* "Riffraff" (1936, screenplay, story)
* "Poor Little Rich Girl" (1936, writer)
* "Knight Without Armour" (1937, adaptation)
* "Love from a Stranger" (1937, writer)
* "Green Hell" (1940, original story and screenplay)
* "Captain Kidd, Jr"(1919, writer)
* "The Famous Mrs. Fair"(1923, adaptation, screenplay)

Published Works

*"Minnie Flynn" NY:Boni and Liveright, (1925)
*"The Secret Six". NY:Grosset & Dunlap, (1931)
*"Valley People". NY:Reynal & Hitchock (1935)
*"How to Write and Sell Film Stories". NY:Covici - Friede, (1937)
*"Molly, Bless Her". NY:Grosset & Dunlap, (1937)
*"Westward The Dream" Garden City:Doubleday, (1948)
* "The Passions of Linda Lane". NY: Diversey Publications, (1949)
*"The Powder Keg". Boston:Little, Brown & Co., (1953)
*"Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood". NY:The MacMillan Company, (1972)

External links

*imdb name|id=0547966|name=Frances Marion
*tcmdb name|id=122326|name=Frances Marion
*" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268037/ Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood at IMDB] "

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Beauchamp, C. Marion, Frances. "American National Biography Online", February 2000.
*

Persondata
NAME= Marion, Frances
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Owens, Marion Benson
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Writer, Screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH= November 18 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH= San Francisco, California, USA
DATE OF DEATH= May 12 1973
PLACE OF DEATH=