Garson Kanin

Garson Kanin
Spencer Tracy (left) and Garson Kanin (right) at the Long Island Studios of the Army Signal Corps for the recording of Tracy's narration of the "Ring of Steel" on February 19, 1942.
Born	November 24, 1912(1912-11-24) Rochester, New York, USA
Died	March 13, 1999(1999-03-13) (aged 86) New York City, New York, USA
Spouse	Ruth Gordon (1942-1985) Marian Seldes (1990-1999)

Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was a prolific American writer and director of plays and films.

Film and stage career

His first film as a director was A Man to Remember (1938), which The New York Times considered one of the ten best films of 1938. Kanin is best remembered, however, for his collaborations with his wife, actress Ruth Gordon, whom he married in 1942. Together, they wrote the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn film comedies Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), both directed by George Cukor.

His 1946 play Born Yesterday, which he also directed, ran for 1,642 performances. Kanin worked, uncredited, on the screenplay of the 1950 film adaptation. His other stage work includes directing The Diary of Anne Frank (1955), which ran for 717 performances, and the musical Funny Girl (1964), which ran for 1,348 performances.

In 1990, Kanin, a widower since 1985, married the actress Marian Seldes, who survives him. In 1999, Kanin died at age 86 in New York City of undisclosed causes.

Acquaintances and memorable sayings

He was a colleague of Thornton Wilder, who mentored him, and an admirer of the work of Frank Capra. Kanin said "I'd rather be Capra than God, if there is a Capra." Kanin and Katharine Hepburn were the only witnesses to Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh's wedding in California on August 31, 1940. In 1941, he and Katharine Hepburn worked with his brother Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner, Jr., on the early drafts of what would become Woman of the Year, right before Garson enlisted in the Army. He is also quoted as saying, "When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."

Selected publications

• Remembering Mr. Maugham; with an introduction by Noel Coward, 1966
• Hollywood..Stars and Starlets, Tycoons, Moviemakers, Frauds, Hopefuls, Great Lovers; New York, Viking Press, 1967
• Movieola, New York, Simon & Shuster, 1979
• Smash. New York: Viking, 1980
• Tracy and Hepburn - an intimate memoir, Viking Press, New York, 1971

Novels

• Blow Up a Storm
• Do Re Mi
• The Rat Race
• Where It's At

Plays

• Born Yesterday
• The Smile of the World
• The Rat Race
• The Live Wire
• Come on Strong

Musicals

• Fledermaus
• Do Re Mi

Filmography

• A Man to Remember (1938) - director
• Next Time I Marry (1938) - director
• The Great Man Votes (1939) - director
• Bachelor Mother (1939) - director
• They Knew What They Wanted (1940) - director
• My Favorite Wife (1940) - director
• Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) - director
• The More the Merrier (1942) - writer
• The True Glory (1945) - director
• From This Day Forward (1946) - writer
• A Double Life (1947) - writer
• Adam's Rib (1949) - writer
• Pat and Mike (1952) - writer
• The Marrying Kind (1952) - writer
• It Should Happen to You (1954) - writer
• The Girl Can't Help It (1956) - original story
• High Time (1960) - original story
• The Rat Race (1960) - writer
• Some Kind of Nut (1968) - writer, director
• Where It's At (1969) - writer, director

External links

• Garson Kanin at the Internet Movie Database
• Garson Kanin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Garson Kanin at Find a Grave
• Garson Kanin Official Website