(1909-1993)

Who Was Joseph L. Mankiewicz?

Born in Pennsylvania in 1909, Joseph L. Mankiewicz eventually joined his older brother Herman as a Hollywood screenwriter. Mankiewicz produced classics like The Philadelphia Story, and later directed his own screenplays, earning Academy Awards for All About Eve and A Letter to Three Wives. He died in New York on February 5, 1993.

Early Life

Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, to Jewish-German immigrant parents who soon moved to Manhattan, where his father taught German and French. With a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University at 19, Mankiewicz was off to Berlin as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He put his language heritage to work in the German film industry, writing English translations for movie subtitles. But by 1929, he had joined his elder brother Herman, already a successful screenwriter, to make his career in Hollywood movies.

Movies: ‘A Letter to Three Wives’ and ‘All About Eve’

Mankiewicz began by writing dialogue for Paramount, but by 1934, Louis B. Mayer had made him an MGM producer. A roster of classics are to his credit there, including the Katharine Hepburn vehicles The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Woman of the Year (1942). However, he really wanted to direct and he finally got his chance after joining 20th Century Fox in 1943 as a producer and screenwriter. Director Ernst Lubitsch’s ill-health allowed Mankiewicz to helm his own screenplay of Dragonwyck, a 1946 Gothic mystery starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price. It was a rocky start. That and several other early directorial efforts were underwhelming.

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Yet Mankiewicz hit his stride with The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in 1947, starring Tierney and Rex Harrison, and 1949’s A Letter to Three Wives, for which he served as screenwriter and won two Oscars. Witty banter and an innate intelligence earmarked Mankiewicz’s screenplays and cemented his signature style as a “literary” director who was good with actors. All About Eve in 1950, with Bette Davis in her bravura turn as an aging actress, was his crowning glory. The film earned 14 Academy Award nominations and scored six, including Best Picture, with Mankiewicz also winning for his direction and screenplay.

Later Career and Death

Mankiewicz had formed an independent production company and tried his hand on Broadway, but neither panned out. Cleopatra (1963), starring the tempestuous couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in an overstuffed and over-budgeted film, failed with the public. Still, the director’s 1953 film of Julius Caesar had been a modest success, featuring Marlon Brando in his only Shakespearean role. And Mankiewicz surprised everyone with a late-career milestone, 1972’s Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier.

Mankiewicz, a noted raconteur and ladies’ man, became reclusive in his later years. He died on February 5, 1993, just days shy of his 84th birthday, in Mount Kisco, New York.

QUICK FACTS

  • Name: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Birth Year: 1909
  • Birth date: February 11, 1909
  • Birth State: Pennsylvania
  • Birth City: Wilkes-Barre
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Joseph L. Mankiewicz was an American screenwriter, director and producer known for writing hit movies such as ‘All About Eve,’ ‘A Letter to Three Wives’ and ‘Cleopatra.’
  • Industries
    • Drama
    • Comedy
    • Horror
  • Astrological Sign: Aquarius
  • Schools
    • Stuyvesant High School
    • Columbia University
  • Death Year: 1993
  • Death date: February 5, 1993
  • Death State: New York
  • Death City: Mount Kisco
  • Death Country: United States
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CITATION INFORMATION

  • Article Title: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/movies-tv/joseph-l-mankiewicz
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: April 1, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

QUOTES

  • The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn’t.
  • I’m a schoolteacher. That’s even worse than being an intellectual. Schoolteachers are not only comic, they’re often cold and hungry in this richest land on earth.
  • All playwrights should be dead for three hundred years.