Biography for
Zoe Akins More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

30 October 1886, Humansville, Missouri, USA

Date of Death

29 October 1958, Los Angeles, California, USA

Mini Biography

The poet, playwright, novelist and screenwriter Zoë Akins was born on the day before Halloween in 1886 in Humansville, Missouri. She was home-schooled before attending the Monticello Seminary in Godfrey, Illinois and Hosmer Hall in St. Louis for her education. Akins lived in St. Louis for many years, writing poetry and contributing criticism to the magazine "Reedy's Mirror". As a writer, she developed into a successful contributor to the leading magazines of the day.

Akins wrOte 40 plays, starting with the sophisticated comedy "Papa" in 1914. "The Magical City", which was part of the repertory of the Washington Square Players' 1915-16 season, was her first Broadway production, opening on October 4, 1915. There were to be another 17 original plays of hers produced on Broadway over the next 30 years.

Her first big hit was "Declassée", which starred Ethel Barrymore and ran for 257 performances in the 1919-20 season. She did not have another big hit until "The Greeks Had a Word for It", which ran for 253 performances in the 1930-21 season. Her most famous play, "The Old Maid" -- an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel -- ran for 305 performances from January through September 1935. The play brought Akins the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. None of her plays has ever been revived on Broadway.

Her play "Daddy's Gone A-Hunting" was the first to be adapted by Hollywood, serving as the basis for the 1925 film of the same name directed by Frank Borzage. Hollywood also bought "Declassée" (which it adapted twice, as a 1925 silent and as a 1928 sound film called "Her Private Life") and "The Moon-Flower", which was turned into "Eve's Secret" (1925). In 1930, she became a screenwriter herself, writing the dialogue for "Sarah and Son" (1930), a "woman's picture" directed by Dorothy Arzner, the sole woman director to successful make the transition from silents to sound in Hollywood. Akins and Arzner would also collaborate on "Anybody's Woman" (1930), "Working Girls" (1931), and "Christopher Strong', Katharine Hepburn's second film; her debut was in the film "Morning Glory" (1933), based on an Akins play that did not make it to Broadway. The role brought Hepburn the first of her four Academy Awards as Best Actress.

Apart from the movies made from her plays and her novel "Pardon My Glove" (adapted as 1930's "Ladies Love Brutes"), Akins wrote, adapted or contributed the story to 15 motion pictures. Her most famous film, as a contributing writer, was the classic "Camille" (1937), which she worked on along with James Hilton and Frances Marion'.

Zoë Atkins died in Los Angeles, California, on October 29, 1958, one day before what would have been her 72nd birthday.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood

Spouse

Captain Hugo C.L. Rumbold

(13 March 1932 - ?)

Trivia

Great aunt of Laurie Metcalf

She was the first writer considered by Universal Pictures to write the screenplay for the 1936 film version of "Show Boat", but her screen treatment was ultimately rejected, and Oscar Hammerstein II eventually adapted his own stage script for the film.

Her husband Hugo Rumbold was a famed stage designer known the world over. They lived on an estate called Green Fountains at 2401 Brigden Road in Pasadena after their 1932 marriage.

Won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "The Old Maid".

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