William Rose (screenwriter)

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Wedding of William Rose (in his Black Watch uniform) and Tania Price in 1943

William Rose (December 12, 1914 – February 10, 1987) was an American screenwriter of British and Hollywood films.[1]

Life and career[]

Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, Rose traveled to Canada after the 1939 outbreak of World War II and volunteered to fight with the Black Watch.[2] After being stationed at bases in Scotland and Europe, he returned to live in Britain at war's end to work as a screenwriter, marrying an English woman, Tania Price, with whom he would later collaborate.[3]

Blessed with the ability to adapt to two distinct cultures, William Rose wrote a number of successful British comedies including Genevieve (1953).[3] He became a working associate of the American-born director Alexander Mackendrick notably for his collaboration on The Maggie (US:High and Dry, 1954) and The Ladykillers (1955).[3] He also provided scripts for Hollywood studios, earning several Academy Award nominations for his screenwriting and winning the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).[4] Rose also won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Written American Comedy for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966).[5]

In 1973, Rose's lifetime achievements were recognized by the Writers Guild of America with their Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement.[6] In the 1970s, he had a brief relationship with Katharine Hepburn.[7]

William Rose died in 1987 in Jersey, Channel Islands.[8] He is buried in the Churchyard at St. Clement Parish Church, Jersey. William and Tania divorced; she died in 2015 aged 95.[9][10]

Screenwriting awards[]

Year Award Category Film Result
1954 Academy Awards Best Story and Screenplay Genevieve Nominated
1957 Best Screenplay – Original The Ladykillers Nominated
1966 Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Nominated
1967 Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Won
1954 British Academy Film Awards Best British Screenplay The Maggie Nominated
1955 The Ladykillers Won
Touch and Go Nominated
1957 The Man in the Sky (Shared with John Eldridge) Nominated
The Smallest Show on Earth (Shared with John Eldridge) Nominated
1968 Best Screenplay Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Nominated
1964 Edgar Allan Poe Awards Best Motion Picture Screenplay It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Shared with Tania Rose) Nominated
1966 Golden Globe Awards Best Screenplay The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Nominated
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Nominated
1967 Writers Guild of America Awards Best Written American Comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Won
1968 The Flim-Flam Man Nominated
Best Written American Drama Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Nominated
Best Written American Original Screenplay Nominated
1972 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement N/A Honored

Filmography[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Leo Verswijver (February 27, 2003). "Movies Were Always Magical": Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s. McFarland. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7864-1129-0.
  2. ^ "William Rose - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "BFI Screenonline: Rose, William (1918-1987) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  4. ^ "William Rose - Movie and Film Awards". AllMovie.
  5. ^ "Writers Guild Awards Winners 1995-1949". awards.wga.org.
  6. ^ "Screen Laurel Award Previous Recipients". awards.wga.org.
  7. ^ Carter, Grace May (18 June 2016). Katharine Hepburn. New Word City. ISBN 9781612309613 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "William Rose". BFI.
  9. ^ "'The Ladykillers' scriptwriter from Gloucestershire village dies aged 95" Archived 2015-10-24 at the Wayback Machine, Gloucestershire Live, October 23, 2015.
  10. ^ Claudia Robinson, "Tania Rose obituary", The Guardian, December 18, 2015.

External links[]

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