Frances Marion
Frances Marion ( born November 18, 1888 in San Francisco, California, † May 12, 1973 in Los Angeles, California; actually Marion Benson Owens ) was an American screenwriter and director.
Life
Frances Marion began her career as a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner and was one of the first female war correspondents during World War II. In 1915 she began her career as a screenwriter in Hollywood, then in addition to the profession of Cutter's one of the few domains in which men and women were equally active. In the 1920s, she wrote a number of screenplays for FBO, where her husband, Fred Thomson, the leading Western performer was. In the following years she became one of the highest paid writers in the industry.
The breakthrough came through their years of collaboration with Mary Pickford, with whom she worked closely on the scripts in successes such as The Little Pincess or Little Lord Fountleroy. Mid-1920s, she moved to MGM, where she also directed took in some comedies of Marion Davies addition to writing the screenplay with. In 1927 she got her friend Marie Dressler, who was in financial difficulties, a contract with the studio and got her some good roles, including in Anna Christie next to Greta Garbo.
1930 and 1932, she won for her work in hell behind bars (The Big House) and The Champ respectively the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. The two films were instrumental for the rise of Wallace Beery one of the stars of MGM. Beery was also a good friend of Frances Marion.
Her second husband was the director George W. Hill, of some of their work, the director took over, so in hell behind bars and the Secret Six.
Throughout her career, she wrote screenplays for more than 130 films and was one of the outstanding writers of film history. She retired in 1946 from the movie business and wrote novels and plays.