Jesse L. Lasky, Jr.
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Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. (September 19, 1910 - April 11, 1988) was an American screenwriter.
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[edit] Family
Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. was the son of film pioneer, Jesse Lasky, Sr.. Jesse Jr. was born on Broadway in 1910 and grew up in Hollywood, New York City, England, and France.
[edit] Education
Lasky attended Blair Academy, the Hun School of Princeton, and the University of Dijon, France, where he received a degree in literature. After winning awards for poetry at the age of 17, he began writing professionally.
[edit] Career
Lasky wrote 8 novels, 3 books of verse, 5 plays and over 50 screenplays including 8 for Cecil B. DeMille. He received the Boxoffice Magazine Award twice, for "Samson and Delilah" (1949)[clarification needed] and "The Ten Commandments" (1956), and the Christopher Award from the Catholic Church. His writing took him from Hollywood to London, Rome, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and France.
[edit] World War II
During World War II, Lasky served as a Captain commanding Combat Photographic Units of the Signal Corps in 4 campaigns in the Southwest Pacific, and was decorated by General MacArthur. He organised the Army School of Film Training at the Signal Corps Photographic Centre where writers were trained to script training films for every branch of the military service.
[edit] Post-war
Returning from three and a half years of overseas duty, Lasky resumed his writing career with books, plays, and films. Jesse lectured on creative writing and Hollywood history at many universities in the United States and England, including The Oxford Union. He also served as Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, Screen Branch.
In 1962, he and his wife, Pat Silver, moved to London. They also lived part of the year in Southern Spain, and travelled extensively. Jesse was a member of The Garrick Club and The Company of Military Historians.
Lasky died on April 11, 1988.
[edit] Autobiography
Lasky was painted by Tsuguharu Foujita at the age of 17, during a trip to Paris with his mother, Bessie Lasky. A copy of this picture appears on page 180 in Lasky's autobiography, Whatever Happened To Hollywood?, published by Funk & Wagnalls in 1975.
[edit] Filmography
- 1934 Music is Magic
- 1935 The White Parade
- 1935 Coming Out Party
- 1936 Land of Liberty
- 1938 Union Pacific
- 1940 North West Mounted Police
- 1940 Back in the Saddle
- 1941 Steel Against the Sky
- 1941 The Singing Hills
- 1941 Reap the Wild Wind
- 1942 Omaha Trail
- 1946 The Valpariso Story
- 1946 Unconquered
- 1948 Thief of Venice
- 1948 Samson and Delilah[clarification needed]
- 1949 Sickle & the Cross
- 1950 Lorna Doone (Edward Small)
- 1950 Mask of the Avenger
- 1950 Never Trust a Gambler
- 1951 The Brigand
- 1952 Salome
- 1952 The Silver Whip
- 1953 The Iron Glove
- 1953 Mission Over Korea
- 1954 Hell and High Water
- 1955 Pearl of the South Pacific
- 1955 Hot Blood
- 1955 The Ten Commandments
- 1958 The Buccaneer
- 1959 John Paul Jones
- 1959 On My Honor (film) - never completed
- 1959? The Red Head
- 1960 Wizard of Baghdad
- 1960 7 Women from Hell
- 1960 Pirates of Tortuga
- 1969 Land Raiders
- 1970 One of Those Things
- 1976 Crime and Passion
- 1980? Bull Dance (Yugoslavia)
