Meet…screenwriter Frances Marion

What should you know about Frances Marion?

She is not the "Swamp Fox" of Revolutionary War fame, although Francis, "The Swamp Fox," Marion is rumored to be one of her ancestors. Frances Marion is the first woman to be nominated and to win an Academy Award for writing. In 1930 she won the Academy Award for Achievement in Writing for the movie "The Big House." The following year she won the Academy Award for Original Story for "The Champ" and was nominated for the story award again the following year for "The Prizefighter and the Lady."

Born in 1887 in San Francisco, Marion came to Hollywood in 1913 at the age of 23, already a journalist and published author. She made friends quickly and was a natural at networking and soon found herself in the midst of the Hollywood machine. One of her best friends was the film star Mary Pickford, for whom she wrote several films. She wrote scripts for many of her friends, including Billie Burke, Ronald Coleman, Rudoph Valentino and Marie Dressler.


Marion's first film was produced in 1915 and began the journey, which would make her the most renowned female scriptwriter in the 20th century, responsible for writing or adapting between 150 and 200 movies, spanning both the silent and talking film eras. She was the highest paid screenwriter of either gender at that time. In 1940 she retired from films but taught screenwriting at the University of California - Los Angeles.

How did she become so highly respected?

Marion wrote across genre and gender lines. She could write "four-hankerchief tearjerkers" like "Stella Dallas" and "The Champ," and high drama, like her Oscar-winner "The Big House." She successfully transition from silent movies to the "talkies" because she wrote scripts that were always conscious of the camera. She often wrote scenes with no dialogue, relying on the actors' expressive faces and actions to relay the story. She was also extremely adept when it came to translating a book to film. She tried her hand at directing at various times throughout her career, but never garnered the recognition and acclaim her writing received.


Marion also wrote plays, a book on writing and selling scripts, magazine articles, several novels and her autobiography, Off With Their Heads, in 1972. Marion died in 1973, but many of her scripts have been remade at least once. Some, like "The Champ," have been remade multiple times.

Is any of her work still available?

Yes, I found the original and remakes of "The Champ" on DVD as well as versions of "Stella Dallas," "Anna Christie" and others on NetFlix and Amazon. I found a VHS copy of "The Big House" on Alibris. Her autobiography, her book on writing/selling scripts and some of her novels are available new and used from venders on Amazon.




Sources: Answers.com, Britannica.com, FilmReference.com, The Oscar Site









NOTE: Don't forget The Virtual Book Tour by Font Literary Agency & Writing Centre is tomorrow, April 8. Click here to read more about Lover's Hollow author Orna Ross, then stop by tomorrow evening to read her responses to your questions!