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Gertrude Walker
Gertrude Walker
Gertrude Walker
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Gertrude Winifred Walker (April 8, 1902 - June 18, 1995) was an American screenwriter, TV writer, and novelist known for her work on B movies at Republic Pictures.

Key Information

Biography

[edit]

Gertrude—the only child of Clinton "Razz" Walker and Gertrude White—grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and attended the Longfellow School. She graduated from Ohio State University, where she performed in plays, before deciding to move to Los Angeles.[1][2]

In Hollywood, Gertrude sought work as an actress, showgirl, and entertainment journalist at fan magazines.[3][4] Her one credited acting role was in 1935's Mary Burns, Fugitive; she also worked as a Ziegfeld Follies girl.[5]

Walker ended up on the writing staff at Republic Pictures, where she enjoyed the collegial atmosphere and working with writer Dane Lussier. As Walker later recounted, she was almost laid off from the studio in 1944—until her boss saw her script for Silent Partner (which she had written in three days) and was blown away.[4] During her time later in the decade at Warner Brothers, she also gained recognition as a novelist; her 1948 title, So Deadly Fair, was named one of the 10 best mystery novels of the year.[6] In 1955, her novel Diamonds Don't Burn was published.[7]

In 1951, she married comedic actor Charles Winninger in Mexico; the pair remained married until his death.[8][9] They met years earlier when she was employed as his secretary.[10]

Selected works

[edit]

Film:

TV:

Novel:

  • Diamond Don't Burn (1955)
  • So Deadly Fair (1948)
  • The King Was in Her Parlour (1944)

References

[edit]
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Gertrude Walker

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Gertrude Walker is an American screenwriter and novelist known for her work on low-budget B-movies at Republic Pictures during the 1940s and her contributions to hardboiled crime fiction. She wrote scripts and stories for several films, including Whispering Footsteps (1943), Silent Partner (1944), and Crime of the Century (1946), often in the mystery and noir genres. Her story "Case History" was sold to Warner Bros. and adapted into the 1950 Joan Crawford film The Damned Don't Cry. Born in Uhrichsville, Ohio, Walker studied journalism at Ohio State University but left after encouragement from James Thurber to pursue writing through persistence and rejection. She performed in theater in New York, including a role at the Shubert Theater, and worked as a nightclub singer before relocating to Los Angeles and securing a staff writing position at Republic Pictures. Her debut novel, So Deadly Fair (1948), a first-person tale of obsession and revenge influenced by James M. Cain, earned notice in the crime fiction community and was selected for Gallimard's prestigious Série Noire imprint in France. In the 1950s Walker transitioned to television writing for series such as Screen Directors Playhouse, Front Row Center, and The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, while also authoring stage plays. She published the suspense novel Diamonds Don't Burn in the UK in 1955, drawing on her later interest in gemology. Her final novel, Suspect (1978), revisited themes from her earlier screenplay Whispering Footsteps in a more explicit, updated form. Walker largely withdrew from Hollywood in her later years to pursue painting, watercolors, and handmade jewelry, dying in December 1994 in Palm Springs, California.

Early life

Birth and family background

Gertrude Walker was born in Uhrichsville, Ohio. She was the only child of Clinton "Razz" Walker and Gertrude White. Her family background was rooted in the Midwest, with her early years spent growing up in Dayton, Ohio.

Education and early interests

Gertrude Walker attended Ohio State University, where she studied journalism as her major. She had arranged for a newspaper position to begin after completing her degree. After attending a lecture by James Thurber at the university, during which he advised aspiring writers to flunk out of college, accumulate rejections, and work diligently to succeed, she decided to leave school without graduating and instead pursue a path in writing and theater. Her early interests centered on literature and performance, as evidenced by her publication of critical articles on poetry and theatrical plays, along with short stories that began during her twenties. She also wrote articles about screen stars for magazines. These formative experiences in writing and an interest in entertainment eventually led her to relocate to Los Angeles.

Early career

Acting and stage work

Gertrude Walker's acting career was brief and limited in scope, consisting mainly of one Broadway stage appearance and a single minor film role. She made her Broadway debut in the 1927 play Weather Clear-Track Fast, portraying the character Gladiola Jennings in a production written and directed by Willard Mack at the Hudson Theatre. The show opened on October 18, 1927, and ran for 63 performances through December of that year. Her only credited screen appearance came eight years later as a hostess in the 1935 crime film Mary Burns, Fugitive. This small role marked the extent of her documented on-screen acting work. Described as a stage actress who later transitioned to writing, Walker shifted focus from performance to screenwriting after these early engagements.

Journalism and magazine contributions

Gertrude Walker contributed to magazines as part of her early writing career, publishing critical articles on poetry and theatrical plays as well as pieces about screen stars. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked as an entertainment journalist for fan magazines, focusing on Hollywood personalities and screen stars. She also wrote short stories and other prose during the 1920s and 1930s. These magazine contributions represented her initial professional writing efforts before transitioning to screenwriting.

Screenwriting career

Entry into screenwriting and Republic Pictures

Gertrude Walker transitioned into professional screenwriting after a nightclub agent in Los Angeles, impressed by the material she wrote for her own singing performances, advised her to pursue writing full-time rather than performing. Following this guidance, she secured a position on the writing staff at Republic Pictures in the early 1940s, where she contributed scripts and stories to the studio's B-movie productions throughout the decade, ultimately working on approximately ten such films. Walker enjoyed the collegial atmosphere at Republic and developed a productive collaboration with fellow writer Dane Lussier, with whom she shared credits on projects such as providing additional dialogue for Mystery Broadcast (1943) and co-writing the screenplay for Whispering Footsteps (1943). In 1944, facing a potential layoff from the studio, she wrote the script for Silent Partner (co-authored with Lussier) in just three days, an effort that impressed her superiors and preserved her position on the staff. After her time at Republic Pictures, Walker continued her screenwriting career, including selling a story treatment titled "Case History" to Warner Brothers in 1948, which later formed the basis for the film The Damned Don't Cry (1950).

Notable film credits and contributions

Gertrude Walker's screenwriting career focused primarily on B-movies in the crime and mystery genres, with many of her credits exhibiting characteristics of film noir. She provided scripts, stories, adaptations, and additional dialogue for Republic Pictures productions and other studios during the 1940s and early 1950s, often contributing original material to suspense-driven narratives involving murder, deception, and criminal investigations. Her earliest credits in 1943 included the story for the homefront comedy Danger! Women at Work, additional dialogue for Mystery Broadcast, and both screenplay and original story for Whispering Footsteps, a mystery in which a bank clerk is suspected of murders after matching a radio-described killer's profile. In 1944 she wrote the screenplay for End of the Road, where a crime writer questions a conviction in the "Flower Shop Murder," and served as writer on Silent Partner, involving reporters suspecting their editor in a death. She followed with the adaptation for Behind City Lights in 1945 and writing credit for Crime of the Century in 1946, the latter centering on an ex-convict entangled in a corporate cover-up after his brother's disappearance. Walker delivered one of her most recognized original contributions with the story for Railroaded! (1947), which centers on a beautician's involvement in a staged robbery and exemplifies her work in noir-inflected crime stories. In 1950 her story "Case History" formed the basis for The Damned Don't Cry, a drama about a mysterious socialite investigated after a gangster's murder. Her final film credit came in 1951 as both story and screenplay for Insurance Investigator, revolving around an undercover probe into a suspicious death tied to a double indemnity policy. Across her credits, Walker frequently originated stories or wrote full screenplays for crime-oriented B-films while occasionally providing adaptations or supplementary dialogue, establishing her within the low-budget noir and mystery output of the era.

Television writing

Scripts for anthology and series television

Gertrude Walker's television writing was limited to a handful of credits in the mid-to-late 1950s, primarily focused on anthology series with one contribution to an episodic drama. These scripts represented her brief shift from feature film screenwriting to the emerging television medium, where she adapted her experience with concise, character-driven narratives. In 1955, she co-wrote the episode "Want Ad Wedding" for the anthology series Screen Directors Playhouse, collaborating with Dane Lussier under director William A. Seiter. The following year, Walker wrote "Pretend You Belong to Me" on the anthology Front Row Center, which aired on April 22, 1956. Her final confirmed television credit came in 1958 with the sole writing credit for "The Chippendale Racket" on The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, an episode involving a phony Georgian silver racket and a murder investigated by the titular detective. After these contributions, Walker's television output declined, with no further verified credits in the medium during subsequent decades.

Literary career

Mystery novels and other publications

Gertrude Walker authored three mystery novels, contributing to the hardboiled crime fiction genre during and after her screenwriting career. Her debut novel, So Deadly Fair, was published by Putnam in 1948. Presented as a frenetic road story with a first-person male narrator named Walter Johnson, it begins in Middletown, Minnesota, and follows a dark, momentum-driven plot across locations including New York City. Contemporary reviews praised its intensity, with some comparisons to the style of James M. Cain, and it later appeared in paperback formats, including an abridged Bestseller edition in 1948 and Popular Library #424 in 1952. Her second novel, Diamonds Don't Burn, appeared in 1955 from Jenkins in the United Kingdom, without a recorded U.S. publication. The narrative makes reference to So Deadly Fair by title, confirming the books as separate works within her limited but distinct mystery output. Walker's final novel, The Suspect, was issued as a paperback original by Major Books in 1978. Set in Los Angeles, it is widely regarded as an updated and retitled novelization of her own 1943 screenplay for the film Whispering Footsteps, featuring a plot in which a man matching a radio-broadcast description of a killer becomes suspected after local murders occur. No additional mystery novels or major literary publications by Walker appear in established crime fiction bibliographies.

Personal life

Relationships and lifestyle

Gertrude Walker lived for much of her adult life in California, particularly in the Los Angeles area including Beverly Hills, where she resided alone in later years. Acquaintances described her as single and never married, with no family members mentioned in their accounts of her life. She was known for a flamboyant yet dignified personality, often characterized as witty, engaging, and something of a character by those who knew her in the 1960s through the 1980s. Walker pursued a serious interest in gemology, studying at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and becoming proficient in cutting gemstones, to the point of owning her own equipment for this purpose in her apartment and occasionally giving handmade jewelry as gifts. This hobby influenced her writing, notably in her 1955 novel Diamonds Don’t Burn. Some biographical sources, including IMDb, have attributed a 1951 marriage to actor Charles Winninger to Walker, claiming the two met earlier during a production of Show Boat. However, this connection has been disputed as a case of mistaken identity with another woman of the same name from Ohio who lived in Hollywood and married Winninger; family members and personal acquaintances of the screenwriter and novelist have clarified that she remained unmarried.

Death

Later years and passing

In her later years, Gertrude Walker resided in Palm Springs, California, having apparently retired from screenwriting and television work after her final known credit in 1958 for an episode of The New Adventures of Charlie Chan. No subsequent credits appear in film or television databases, consistent with the end of her active career that had spanned B-movies at Republic Pictures and occasional anthology series contributions through the late 1950s. Walker passed away in December 1994 in Palm Springs, California.
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