John Meehan(1884-1954)
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Additional Crew
John Meehan, the Oscar-nominated Cando-American screenwriter and
playwright best known for co-writing the classic
Boys Town (1938), was born on May 8,
1884 in Lindsay, Ontario. His first dream was to be a chef, but after
studying the culinary arts in Austria, he went to New York to seek fame
and fortune in the theater. Meehan made his Broadway debut in 1902 as
an actor in a play inspired by a story by
Richard Harding Davis,
"Soliders of Fortune". From 1903 to 1908 he appeared three more times
as an actor on Broadway. The next time his name was associated with The
Great White Way, it was as a playwright, when his play "The Very
Minute" was produced in 1917, starring
Cathleen Nesbitt. The show closed after
32 performances.
He acted again on Broadway in
John Drinkwater's 1919 hit play
"Abraham Lincoln". Five of his original plays, all comedies, were
staged during the Roaring Twenties. He also sporadically acted during
the days of the Jazz Age, but more frequently, he produced and directed
other dramatists's works. When moving pictures began to talk, he heeded
Horace Greeley's admonition "Go West, Young Man" and hightailed it to
Hollywood. He returned once again to the Broadway theater for his
swansong, as an actor, in 1935's "A Journey By Night". (His son, John
Meehan, Jr. wrote the books for the operettas "Rosalinda" and "Helen
Goes to Troy".)
Meehan was hired as a contract writer by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the
time that Paramount was adapting his play
The Lady Lies (1929) for the Big
Screen, with a cast that featured
Walter Huston and a young
Claudette Colbert as the
leads. The play had not been a success in 1928, closing after just 24
performances, but Hollywood needed writers who could write dialogue.
("The Lady Lies" was remade into four other films in four different
languages, as was the custom in the early talkie period, before dubbing
was perfected.) Meehan's 1927 play "Bless You, Sister" (which also
lasted but 24 performances on Broadway), was adapted by
Jo Swerling as
The Miracle Woman (1931) for
Frank Capra at Columbia, providing a choice
role for Barbara Stanwyck, playing an
Aimee Semple McPherson-like woman
preacher.
Meehan won his first Oscar nomination soon after coming to Hollywood,
in 1930, for The Divorcee (1930). He
won his second Oscar nod along with co-writer
Dore Schary in 1939 for "Boy's Town". M.G.M.
superstars Norma Shearer in "The Divorcee"
and Spencer Tracy in "Boy's Town"
won Oscars for their work in Meehan screenplays.
John Meehan died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles on November 12, 1954.
He was 70 years old.
playwright best known for co-writing the classic
Boys Town (1938), was born on May 8,
1884 in Lindsay, Ontario. His first dream was to be a chef, but after
studying the culinary arts in Austria, he went to New York to seek fame
and fortune in the theater. Meehan made his Broadway debut in 1902 as
an actor in a play inspired by a story by
Richard Harding Davis,
"Soliders of Fortune". From 1903 to 1908 he appeared three more times
as an actor on Broadway. The next time his name was associated with The
Great White Way, it was as a playwright, when his play "The Very
Minute" was produced in 1917, starring
Cathleen Nesbitt. The show closed after
32 performances.
He acted again on Broadway in
John Drinkwater's 1919 hit play
"Abraham Lincoln". Five of his original plays, all comedies, were
staged during the Roaring Twenties. He also sporadically acted during
the days of the Jazz Age, but more frequently, he produced and directed
other dramatists's works. When moving pictures began to talk, he heeded
Horace Greeley's admonition "Go West, Young Man" and hightailed it to
Hollywood. He returned once again to the Broadway theater for his
swansong, as an actor, in 1935's "A Journey By Night". (His son, John
Meehan, Jr. wrote the books for the operettas "Rosalinda" and "Helen
Goes to Troy".)
Meehan was hired as a contract writer by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the
time that Paramount was adapting his play
The Lady Lies (1929) for the Big
Screen, with a cast that featured
Walter Huston and a young
Claudette Colbert as the
leads. The play had not been a success in 1928, closing after just 24
performances, but Hollywood needed writers who could write dialogue.
("The Lady Lies" was remade into four other films in four different
languages, as was the custom in the early talkie period, before dubbing
was perfected.) Meehan's 1927 play "Bless You, Sister" (which also
lasted but 24 performances on Broadway), was adapted by
Jo Swerling as
The Miracle Woman (1931) for
Frank Capra at Columbia, providing a choice
role for Barbara Stanwyck, playing an
Aimee Semple McPherson-like woman
preacher.
Meehan won his first Oscar nomination soon after coming to Hollywood,
in 1930, for The Divorcee (1930). He
won his second Oscar nod along with co-writer
Dore Schary in 1939 for "Boy's Town". M.G.M.
superstars Norma Shearer in "The Divorcee"
and Spencer Tracy in "Boy's Town"
won Oscars for their work in Meehan screenplays.
John Meehan died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles on November 12, 1954.
He was 70 years old.