Great Noir Writers
by zeleao48 | created - 05 Sep 2013 | updated - 30 Sep 2013 | Public
1. Agatha Christie
Writer | Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie
Agatha was born as "Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller" in 1890 to Frederick Alvah Miller and Clara Boehmer. Agatha was of American and British descent, her father being American and her mother British. Her father was a relatively affluent stockbroker. Agatha received home education from early childhood ...
2. Ben Hecht
Writer | Notorious
Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood's and Broadway's greatest writers, won an Oscar for best original story for Underworld (1927) at the first Academy Awards in 1929 and had a hand in the writing of many classic films. He was nominated five more times for the best writing Oscar, winning (along with writing...
Hecht was a screenwriter 'per' excellence. He wrote screenplays for the movie industry. But he always made a point. Amongst his contribution for the noir genre are 'Whirlpool', 1949, directed by Otto Preminger, 'Where the Sidewalk Ends', 1950, directed by Otto Preminger and 'Edge of Doom', 1950, directed by Mark Robson.
3. Cornell Woolrich
Writer | The Window
Prolific mystery writer Cornell Woolrich was born in New York City, but his parents separated when he was young and he spent much of his childhood in Latin America with his father. Then he was sent back to New York to live with his rich, domineering mother, Claire. He attended Columbia University ...
Another giant of the 40's. Woolrich was a very prolific writer and screenwriter. He wrote about 100 novels and screen plays during his sixty-four years of life. Amongst his best works we can note 'The Phantom Lady', 1944, directed by Robert Siodmak, 'Black Angel', 1946, directed by Roy William Neill and 'I Married a DeadMan', 1950, directed by Mitchell Leisen.
4. Daphne Du Maurier
Writer | The Birds
Daphne Du Maurier was one of the most popular English writers of the 20th Century, when middle-brow genre fiction was accorded a higher level of respect in a more broadly literate age. For her services to literature, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, the ...
Daphne Du Maurier mixes with special talent two popular literary genres: Gothic and Noir. But her masterpiece 'Rebecca' is a great noir classic.
5. Dashiell Hammett
Writer | The Thin Man
Dashiell Hammett was born May 27, 1894, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, to Richard Hammett and Mary Bond. He joined the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1915. He enlisted in the US Army's Ambulance Corps in June 1918 and was posted to a camp 20 miles from Baltimore, where he ...
For many critics Hammett was the founder of the noir with his hard-boiled stories in which P.I. as Sam Spade walks around. His style helps to define a period piece in North American literature and he was the inspiration for a great number of authors. His most important novels are 'The Thin Man' and 'The Maltese Falcon'.
6. Dennis Lehane
Producer | The Drop
Dennis Lehane was born on August 4, 1965 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The Drop (2014), Mystic River (2003) and Live by Night (2016). He was previously married to Dr. Angela Mililani (Lieb) Bernardo and Sheila Fort Lawn.
Another great name of the modern noir, Lehane is a sensible and very poignant writer. His most important books are 'Shutter Island' and 'Mystic River', both of them adapted with great sucess to the movie by Martin Scorcese and Clint Eastwood.
7. Elmore Leonard
Writer | Out of Sight
Elmore Leonard was born on October 11, 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Out of Sight (1998), Justified (2010) and Get Shorty (1995). He was married to Christine Kent, Joan Shepard and Beverly Claire Cline. He died on August 20, 2013 in Bloomfield Township...
8. Erle Stanley Gardner
Writer | Perry Mason
Erle Stanley Gardner, the prolific pulp fiction writer best known for creating the fictional lawyer Perry Mason; Della Street, Mason's secretary; private detective Paul Drake, Mason's favorite investigator; and Hamilton Burger, the district attorney with the worst won-lost record in the history of ...
if you ever read the classic novels starring Perry Mason you konow why Gardner is in this list.
9. James M. Cain
Writer | Double Indemnity
James M. Cain was a 'Film Noir' author. His father was a professor, and president, of 'Washington College'. His mother was an opera singer in Maryland.
James graduated from the same college in 1910, and became a writer for 'Baltimore American', then 'Baltimore Sun' [still being published] by 1914. ...
Cain was one of the great USA writers of the first piece of the last century. He wrote some applauded classics in noir, such as 'The Postman Always Ring Twice.
10. Joseph Wambaugh
Writer | The Black Marble
Joseph Wambaugh was born on January 22, 1937 in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Black Marble (1980), Police Story (1973) and The New Centurions (1972). He has been married to Lawana Dee Allsup since November 26, 1955. They have three children.
The noir master of California, Wambaugh is the author of some classic policial procedure/hard cops stories as 'The New Cnturions' and 'Hollywood Moon'.
11. Lawrence Block
Writer | A Walk Among the Tombstones
Lawrence Block was born on June 24, 1938 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014), My Blueberry Nights (2007) and 8 Million Ways to Die (1986).
Block is one of the most intense voices of the 'new noir'. He created Scudder, a complicated, unhappy but generous P.I. He won the Edgar and Anthony Award and is one the Great masters of Crime in America.
12. Leslie Charteris
Writer | The Saint
Worked in a tin mine, on a rubber plantation, as a gold prospector, as a bartender and as a professional bridge player before writing. The first Saint book, written when he was 20 years old, was his third book and the only one of his first five novels to feature the Saint. Wrote nearly a hundred ...
Charteris created one of the most importante detective of the thirties: Simon Templar, aka The Saint. Geoge Sanders and Roger Moore gave life to Simon Templar in movies and in a top hit TV series in the 60's.
13. Mickey Spillane
Writer | The Girl Hunters
Mickey Spillane, the king of the pulp novelists in the post-WW II period, sold an estimated 200 million copies globally. He was born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn, New York. Young Frank's mother was a Protestant who bestowed on him his middle name "Morrison", but his Irish Catholic father, ...
14. Raymond Chandler
Writer | Double Indemnity
An American novelist, writer of crime fiction featuring the private detective Philip Marlowe, Raymond (Thornton) Chandler was born in Chicago of an American father and an Anglo-Irish mother. He moved to England when his parents divorced. He attended Dulwich College and studied languages in France ...
A fundamental writer in the genre, Chandler created the P.I. Philip Marlowe and wrote some classics as 'The Long Goodbye' and 'The Lady of the Lake'.
15. Ruth Rendell
Writer | Carne trémula
Ruth Rendell was born on February 17, 1930 in South Woodford, Essex, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Live Flesh (1997), La Cérémonie (1995) and Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987). She was married to Donald John Rendell. She died on May 2, 2015 in London, England, UK.
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