Leonard Spigelgass

Leonard Spigelgass (November 26, 1908 – February 15, 1985) was an American film producer and screenwriter.

Biography

Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Spigelgass got his start collaborating on the script for Erich Von Stroheim's Hello, Sister! (1933). Additional screen credits include The Big Street (1942), I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), Silk Stockings (1957), Pepe (1960), and Gypsy (1962).

Spigelgass signed on as a staff writer for Universal Studios in 1938 and was a colonel in the US Army Signal Corps.

Spigelgass also was a playwright and penned such dramas as Dear Me the Sky Is Falling, The Wrong Way Light Bulb, and A Remedy for Winter, the comedy A Majority of One, and the book for the musical Look to the Lilies. He also wrote plays for such television series as Playhouse 90 and the novels Million Dollar Baby and Fed to the Teeth.

During his career, Spigelgass wrote the scripts for eleven Academy Award-winning films. He himself was nominated in 1950 for the story for Mystery Street and garnered three Writers Guild of America nominations over the course of his career.

Spigelgass' sister, Beulah Roth, was a political speechwriter for Franklin Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson, and was married to photographer Sanford H. Roth, a close friend of James Dean. Spigelgass died in Los Angeles, California.

Selected filmography

• Hello, Sister! (1933)
• Stingaree (1934)
• I'll Fix It (1935)
• Princess O'Hara (1935) - associate producer
• Letter of Introduction (1938)
• Service de Luxe (1938)
• Unexpected Father (1939)
• Private Affairs (1940)
• The Boys from Syracuse (1940)
• One Night in the Tropics (1940) - associate producer
• Million Dollar Baby (1941) - based on his story ""Miss Wheelwright Discovers America""
• Tight Shoes (1941)
• All Through the Night (1942)
• Butch Minds the Baby (1942)
• The Big Street (1942) - also associate producer
• The Youngest Profession (1943)
• They Got Me Covered (1943) - original story
• The Perfect Marriage (1947)
• [[So Evil My Love] (1948)
• The Accused (1949)
• I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
• Mystery Street (1950) - story
• Night Into Morning (1951)
• The Law and the Lady (1951)
• Because You're Mine (1952)
• Scandal at Scourie (1953)
• Athena (1954)
• Deep in My Heart (1954)
• MGM Parade (1955-56) - director
• Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957)
• Playhouse 90 - episodes "Eloise, "One Coat of White", "The Helen Morgan Story"
• Silk Stockings (1957)
• Climax! - episodes "A Man of Taste", "Mr Runyon of Broadway", "Along Came a Spider"
• Pepe (1960)
• A Majority of One (1961) - also based on his play
• Gypsy (1962)
• ABC Afterschool Specials - episode "Cyrano" (1974)
• 20th Century Fox Presents... A Tribute to Darryl F. Zanuck (1974)
• The 48th Annual Academy Awards (1976)
• The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978)
• The 52nd Annual Academy Awards (1980)
• The 54th Annual Academy Awards (1982)
• The 55th Annual Academy Awards (1983)

Theatre Credits

• A Majority of One (1959-60) - writer
• Dear Me, The Sky is Falling (1963) - writer
• The Wrong Way Light Bulb (1969) - writer
• Look to the Lilies (1970) - author of book of musical based on Lilies of the Field
• Mack & Mabel (1974) - based on idea

External links

• Leonard Spigelgass at the Internet Broadway Database
• Leonard Spigelgass at IMDb
• Leonard Spigelgass at Find a Grave