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Ben Hecht

February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964

Inducted in 2013

Books (partial list)

1001 Afternoons in Chicago (1922)

Fantazius Mallare, a Mysterious Oath (1922)

The Florentine Dagger: A Novel for Amateur Detectives (1923)

Kingdom of Evil (1924)

Broken Necks (1926)

Count Bruga (1926)

A Jew in Love (1931)

The Book of Miracles (1939)

A Guide for the Bedevilled (1944)

The Collected Stories of Ben Hecht (1945)

Perfidy (1962)

Concerning a Woman of Sin (1964)

Gaily, Gaily, Signet (1963)

A Child of the Century (1954) (May 30, 1985)

The Front Page (1998)

The Champion from Far Away (1931)

Actor's Blood (1936)

A Treasury of Ben Hecht: Collected Stories and Other Writings (1959)

Erik Dorn

I Hate Actors!

1001 Afternoons in New York

The Sensualists

Winkelberg (play)

Miracle in the Rain

Letters from Bohemia

Gargoyles

The Egoist

Screenplays

Kiss of Death

Casino Royale (uncredited)

Circus World

7 Faces of Dr. Lao (uncredited)

Cleopatra (uncredited)

Billy Rose's Jumbo

Mutiny on the Bounty (uncredited)

Walk on the Wild Side (uncredited)

North to Alaska (uncredited)

John Paul Jones (uncredited)

The Gun Runners (uncredited)

Queen of Outer Space

Legend of the Lost

The Sun Also Rises

A Farewell to Arms

Miracle in the Rain

The Iron Petticoat

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (uncredited)

Trapeze (uncredited)

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (uncredited)

The Indian Fighter

The Man with the Golden Arm (uncredited)

Guys and Dolls (uncredited)

Living It Up (based on his play Hazel Flagg)

Ulysses

Light's Diamond Jubilee (television)

Terminal Station (uncredited)

Angel Face (uncredited)

Hans Christian Andersen (uncredited)

Monkey Business

Actors and Sin (also directed and produced)

The Wild Heart (uncredited)

The Thing from Another World (uncredited)

The Secret of Convict Lake (uncredited)

Strangers on a Train (uncredited)

September Affair (uncredited)

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Edge of Doom (uncredited)

Perfect Strangers

Love Happy (uncredited)

The Inspector General (uncredited)

Whirlpool

Roseanna McCoy (uncredited)

Big Jack (uncredited)

Portrait of Jennie (uncredited)

Cry of the City (uncredited)

Rope (uncredited)

The Miracle of the Bells

Dishonored Lady (uncredited)

Her Husband's Affairs

The Paradine Case (uncredited)

Ride the Pink Horse

Kiss of Death

Duel in the Sun (uncredited)

Notorious

A Flag is Born

Specter of the Rose (also directed and produced)

Gilda (uncredited)

Cornered (uncredited)

Spellbound

Watchtower Over Tomorrow

Lifeboat (uncredited)

The Outlaw (uncredited)

China Girl

Journey Into Fear (uncredited)

The Black Swan

Ten Gentlemen from West Point (uncredited)

Roxie Hart (uncredited)

Lydia

The Mad Doctor (uncredited)

Comrade X

Second Chorus (uncredited)

Angels Over Broadway (also directed and produced)

Foreign Correspondent (final scene-uncredited)

The Shop Around the Corner (uncredited)

His Girl Friday

I Take This Woman (uncredited)

Gone with the Wind (uncredited)

At the Circus (uncredited)

Lady of the Tropics

It's a Wonderful World

Wuthering Heights

Let Freedom Ring

Stagecoach (uncredited)

Gunga Din

Angels with Dirty Faces (uncredited)

The Goldwyn Follies

Nothing Sacred

The Hurricane (uncredited)

The Prisoner of Zenda (uncredited)

Woman Chases Man (uncredited)

King of Gamblers (uncredited)

A Star Is Born (uncredited)

Soak the Rich (also directed)

The Scoundrel (also directed)

Spring Tonic

Barbary Coast

Once in a Blue Moon (also directed)

The Florentine Dagger

The President Vanishes (uncredited)

Crime Without Passion (also directed)

Shoot the Works

Twentieth Century (uncredited)

Upperworld

Viva Villa!

Riptide (uncredited)

Queen Christina (uncredited)

Design for Living

Turn Back the Clock

Topaze

Hallelujah, I'm a Bum

Back Street (uncredited)

Rasputin and the Empress (uncredited)

Million Dollar Legs (uncredited)

Scarface

The Beast of the City (uncredited)

The Unholy Garden (1931 film)

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (uncredited)

Monkey Business (uncredited)

Homicide Squad (uncredited)

Quick Millions (uncredited)

Le Spectre vert

Roadhouse Nights

Street of Chance (uncredited)

The Unholy Night

The Great Gabbo

The Big Noise

The American Beauty (uncredited)

Underworld

The New Klondike (uncredited)

Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos.

Hecht’s career began at 16, when he relocated to Chicago to begin a journalism career that included work at the Chicago Journal and Chicago Daily News, for whom he covered Berlin after World War I. While Hecht was most prolific as the scriptwriter of some 70 films (among them The Front Page, Scarface, Gunga Din and Notorious), he also turned out many quality stories, novels, plays and non-fiction works. His first novel, Erik Dorn, received great reviews, and his collection of newspaper columns, One Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago is still beloved. Two of Hecht’s scripts won Academy Awards for best screenplay.

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