Owen Davis

Owen Davis, Sr.
Born	Owen Gould Davis, Sr. 29 January 1874(1874-01-29) Portland, Maine, USA
Died	14 October 1956(1956-10-14) (aged 82) New York City, New York
Pen name	John Oliver
Occupation	Playwright, screenwriter
Nationality	United States
Spouse	Elizabeth Breyer
Child(ren)	Owen Davis, Jr. Donald Davis
Information
Magnum opus	Icebound
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1923)

Owen Gould Davis, Sr. (29 January 1874 – 14 October 1956) was an American dramatist. He received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1923 play Icebound, and penned hundreds of plays and scripts for radio and film. Before the First World War, he also wrote racy sketches of New York high jinks and low life for the Police Gazette under the name of 'Ike Swift'. Many of these were set in the Tenderloin.

Davis was born in Portland, Maine and lived until he was fifteen in Bangor. He was the father of actor Owen, Jr. and playwright, Donald. His brother William Hammatt Davis was Chairman of the National War Labor Board in Franklin Roosevelt's administration. Davis died in New York City.

Bibliography

• Sketches of Gotham(as Ike Swift)(1906)
• Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model (1906)
• The Scrap of Paper (1917)
• The Detour (1921)
• Icebound (1923), for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (*adapted into a 1924 silent film Icebound directed by William C. deMille
• The Nervous Wreck (1923), play, later made into the 1926 motion picture of the same name, and the 1944 motion picture Up in Arms; later produced as a musical, Whoopee!, staged on Broadway in 1928 and 1979 and made into the 1930 motion picture of the same name
• The Haunted House (1924)
• Lazybones (1924), made into the 1925 motion picture of the same name
• Beware of Widows (1925)
• Easy Come, Easy Go (1926), play later produced as a musical, Lady Fingers (1929)
• The Great Gatsby (1926), play based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, made into the 1949 motion picture
• Just to Remind You (1931), play which premiered at Lakewood Theatre in Maine, with Humphrey Bogart in lead
• The Good Earth (1932), dramatization of the Pearl Buck novel, later produced as the 1937 motion picture, all of the same name
• Jezebel (1933), original play turned into the 1938 motion picture of the same name
• The Convict's Sweetheart
• Ethan Frome (1935), play based on the Edith Wharton novel, produced on Broadway in 1936
• Mr. and Mrs. North (1941), dramatization from short stories by Richard Lockridge and Frances Lockridge, made into the 1942 motion picture
• The Snark Was a Boojum (1943), dramatization of a novel by Richard Shattuck
• No Way Out (1944)

References

• Staff writers (15 April 1992). "Donald Davis Is Dead; Playwright Was 88". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DD163DF936A25757C0A964958260. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
• Webster's Biographical Dictionary (First edition ed.). Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co.. 1980. 

External links

• Owen Davis at the Internet Broadway Database
• Owen Davis at the Internet Movie Database