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IMDbPro

Joseph L. Mankiewicz(1909-1993)

  • Writer
  • Producer
  • Director
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Joseph Mankiewicz circa 1959
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount productions in Hollywood, most of them Jack Oakie vehicles. Still in his 20s, he produced first-class MGM films, including The Philadelphia Story (1940). Having left Metro after a dispute with studio chief Louis B. Mayer over Judy Garland, he then worked for Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox, producing The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), when Ernst Lubitsch's illness first brought him to the director's chair for Dragonwyck (1946). Mankiewicz directed 20 films in a 26-year period, successfully attempted every kind of movie from Shakespeare adaptation to western, from urban sociological drama to musical, from epic film with thousands of extras to a two-character picture. A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950) brought him wide recognition along with two Academy Awards for each as a writer and a director, seven years after his elder brother Herman J. Mankiewicz won Best Screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941). His more intimate films like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Barefoot Contessa (1954)--his only original screenplay--and The Honey Pot (1967) are major artistic achievements as well, showing Mankiewicz as a witty dialoguist, a master in the use of flashback and a talented actors' director (he favored English actors and had in Rex Harrison a kind of alter-ego on the screen).
BornFebruary 11, 1909
DiedFebruary 5, 1993(83)
BornFebruary 11, 1909
DiedFebruary 5, 1993(83)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Won 4 Oscars

Photos25

Marilyn Monroe and Joseph L. Mankiewicz in All About Eve (1950)
Marlon Brando, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Louis Calhern, and Edmond O'Brien
"Cleopatra" Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor and Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1963 20th Century Fox
3756-7 Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift in "Suddenly Last Summer" 1959 Colombia
Joseph Mankiewicz Film Set "Julius Caesar" (1952) Copyright John Swope Trust / MPTV
"Cleopatra" Elizabeth Taylor, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Richard Burton 1962 20th Century Fox
Joseph Mankiewicz Film Set "Julius Caesar" (1952) Copyright John Swope Trust / MPTV
"All About Eve" Bette Davis, Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1950 20th Century Fox ** I.V.
Joseph Mankiewicz with camera boom Copyright John Swope Trust / MPTV
Clark Gable, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Joan Crawford, John Arledge, and Frank Borzage in Strange Cargo (1940)
Elizabeth Taylor and Joseph L. Mankiewicz in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Katharine Hepburn and Joseph L. Mankiewicz in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Known for

Poster for 50th anniversary rerelease, 1 sheet movie poster app. 27" x 40"
All About Eve
8.2
  • Writer
  • 1950
Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963)
Cleopatra
7.0
  • Writer
  • 1963
Kirk Douglas, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain, Paul Douglas, Jeffrey Lynn, and Ann Sothern in A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
A Letter to Three Wives
7.7
  • Writer
  • 1949
Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in Sleuth (1972)
Sleuth
8.0
  • Director
  • 1972

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Writer

  • Pleins feux
  • Pleins feux
  • Stephanie Zimbalist, Loni Anderson, Ben Gazzara, Charles Frank, Michael Gross, and Michele Lee in A Letter to Three Wives (1985)
    A Letter to Three Wives
  • The Honey Pot (1967)
    The Honey Pot
  • Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963)
    Cleopatra
  • Giorgia Moll in The Quiet American (1958)
    The Quiet American
  • Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine in Guys and Dolls (1955)
    Guys and Dolls
  • Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
    The Barefoot Contessa
  • Marlon Brando, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Greer Garson, Louis Calhern, and Edmond O'Brien in Julius Caesar (1953)
    Julius Caesar
    • (uncredited)
  • 5 Fingers (1952)
    5 Fingers
    • (uncredited)
  • I'll Never Forget You (1951)
    I'll Never Forget You
    • (uncredited)
  • Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain in People Will Talk (1951)
    People Will Talk
  • Poster for 50th anniversary rerelease, 1 sheet movie poster app. 27" x 40"
    All About Eve
  • No Way Out (1950)
    No Way Out
  • Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, and Richard Conte in House of Strangers (1949)
    House of Strangers
    • (uncredited)

Producer

  • There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
    There Was a Crooked Man...
  • Peter Sellers, Peter Fonda, Ben Gazzara, Richard Harris, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Shaw, and Rod Serling in Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
    Carol for Another Christmas
  • Giorgia Moll in The Quiet American (1958)
    The Quiet American
    • (uncredited)
  • Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
    The Keys of the Kingdom
  • Reunion in France (1942)
    Reunion in France
  • Robert Young, Jeanette MacDonald, Reginald Owen, and Ethel Waters in Cairo (1942)
    Cairo
    • (uncredited)
  • Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year (1942)
    Woman of the Year
  • Don Ameche, Kay Francis, and Rosalind Russell in The Feminine Touch (1941)
    The Feminine Touch
  • Dan Dailey, Mary Howard, and Frank Morgan in The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)
    The Wild Man of Borneo
    • (uncredited)
  • Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940)
    The Philadelphia Story
  • Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in Strange Cargo (1940)
    Strange Cargo
  • Mickey Rooney in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Terry Kilburn and Reginald Owen in A Christmas Carol (1938)
    A Christmas Carol
  • Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Melvyn Douglas, and Margaret Sullavan in The Shining Hour (1938)
    The Shining Hour
  • James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan in The Shopworn Angel (1938)
    The Shopworn Angel

Director

  • Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in Sleuth (1972)
    Sleuth
  • There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
    There Was a Crooked Man...
  • Martin Luther King in King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1969)
    King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
    • (uncredited)
  • The Honey Pot (1967)
    The Honey Pot
  • Peter Sellers, Peter Fonda, Ben Gazzara, Richard Harris, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Shaw, and Rod Serling in Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
    Carol for Another Christmas
  • Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963)
    Cleopatra
  • Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
    Suddenly, Last Summer
  • Giorgia Moll in The Quiet American (1958)
    The Quiet American
  • Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine in Guys and Dolls (1955)
    Guys and Dolls
  • Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
    The Barefoot Contessa
  • Marlon Brando, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Greer Garson, Louis Calhern, and Edmond O'Brien in Julius Caesar (1953)
    Julius Caesar
  • 5 Fingers (1952)
    5 Fingers
  • Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain in People Will Talk (1951)
    People Will Talk
  • Poster for 50th anniversary rerelease, 1 sheet movie poster app. 27" x 40"
    All About Eve
  • No Way Out (1950)
    No Way Out

Personal details

Edit
    • February 11, 1909
    • Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
    • February 5, 1993
    • Bedford, New York, USA(heart failure)
    • Rosemary MathewsDecember 14, 1962 - February 5, 1993 (his death, 1 child)
    • Don Mankiewicz(Niece or Nephew)
  • Publicity listings
    • 6 Print Biographies
    • 4 Portrayals
    • 6 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Obliged as a disciplinary measure to write some episodes of the TV series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954), he wrote a script in which the dog behaved like a perfect coward and, instead of saving a boy from a fire, made him fall down into the flames.
  • Quotes
    I think it can be said fairly that I've been in on the beginning, rise, peak, collapse, and end of the talking picture.
    • Cleopatra
      (1963)
      $3,000,000

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