About

Known credits:
40
Birthday:
1896-04-04
Place of birth:
New York City, New York, USA
Website:
N/A

Robert E. Sherwood

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.

Born in 1896 in New Rochelle, New York, Robert was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a highly accomplished illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood.

Sherwood's first Broadway play, The Road to Rome (1927), a comedy concerning Hannibal's botched invasion of Rome, introduced one of his favorite themes: the futility of war. Many of his later dramatic works employed variations of that motif, including Idiot's Delight (1936), which won Sherwood the first of four Pulitzer Prizes. According to legend, he once admitted to the gossip columnist Lucius Beebe, “The trouble with me is that I start with a big message and end up with nothing but good entertainment.”

Sherwood's Broadway success soon attracted the attention of Hollywood; he began writing for the silver screen in 1926. While some of his work went uncredited, his films included many adaptations of his plays. He also collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock and Joan Harrison in writing the screenplay for Rebecca (1940).

With Europe in the midst of World War II, Sherwood set aside his anti-war stance to support the fight against the Third Reich. His 1940 play about the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland, There Shall Be No Night, was produced by the Playwright's Company that he co-founded and starred Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, and Montgomery Clift. Sherwood publicly ridiculed isolationist Charles Lindbergh as a "Nazi with a Nazi's Olympian contempt for all democratic processes".

After serving as Director of the Office of War Information from 1943 until the conclusion of the war, he returned to dramatic writing with the movie The Best Years of Our Lives, directed by William Wyler. The 1946 film, which explores changes in the lives of three servicemen after they return home from war, earned Sherwood an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

Sherwood died of a heart attack in New York City in 1955. A production of his final work, Small War on Murray Hill, debuted on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on January 3, 1957. Nearly four decades later, Sherwood was portrayed by actor Nick Cassavetes in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, a 1994 feature film about the Algonquin Round Table.

Known for

Acting
1987 The Ten-Year Lunch Actor Himself (archive footage) 58
Average
1939 20,000 Men a Year Actor Dispatcher 58
Average

Writing
1996 The Preacher's Wife Writing Original Film Writer 58
Average
1964 Abe Lincoln in Illinois Writing Theatre Play N/A
N/A
1956 Gaby Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1955 The Petrified Forest Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1955 Jupiter's Darling Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1953 The Backbone of America Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1953 Main Street to Broadway Writing Writer 58
Average
1953 Man on a Tightrope Writing Writer 59
Average
1947 The Bishop's Wife Writing Screenplay 62
Fair
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives Writing Screenplay 69
Fair
1945 Escape in the Desert Writing Theatre Play N/A
N/A
1940 Waterloo Bridge Writing Theatre Play 62
Fair
1940 Rebecca Writing Screenplay 74
Good
1940 Abe Lincoln in Illinois Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1940 Abe Lincoln in Illinois Writing Screenplay 59
Average
1939 Over the Moon Writing Story 58
Average
1939 Idiot's Delight Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1939 Idiot's Delight Writing Screenplay 58
Average
1938 The Adventures of Marco Polo Writing Screenplay 58
Average
1938 The Divorce of Lady X Writing Writer 59
Average
1937 Tovarich Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1937 Thunder in the City Writing Screenplay 59
Average
1936 The Petrified Forest Writing Theatre Play 61
Fair
1935 The Ghost Goes West Writing Screenplay 59
Average
1934 The Scarlet Pimpernel Writing Writer 60
Fair
1933 Roman Scandals Writing Story 58
Average
1933 Reunion in Vienna Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1932 Cock of the Air Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1931 Around the World with Douglas Fairbanks Writing Dialogue N/A
N/A
1931 The Age for Love Writing Dialogue N/A
N/A
1931 Waterloo Bridge Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1926 Red Hot Rails Writing Writer 59
Average
1926 The Lucky Lady Writing Writer 59
Average
1926 Oh! What a Nurse! Writing Writer N/A
N/A

Production
1941 Adam Had Four Sons Production Producer 58
Average

Crew
1927 The Prince of Whales Crew Title Graphics N/A
N/A

Editing
1927 North of Nowhere Editing Editor 59
Average
1927 Hitting the Trail Editing Editor N/A
N/A