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Isobel Lennart
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Isobel Lennart
Isobel Lennart (May 18, 1915 – January 25, 1971) was an American screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing the book for the Broadway musical Funny Girl which premiered in 1964, although she also wrote scripts for successful Hollywood films featuring major stars, some of which received Oscar nominations.
Lennart was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents; her father, Edward M. Hochdorf, was a dentist and her mother was Victoria Lennart Livingston. As a child, Lennart caught polio and spent 10 years in leg braces. Lennart married actor and writer John Harding in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1945. They had two children, Joshua Lennart Harding (December 27, 1947 – August 4, 1971) and Sarah Elizabeth Harding (born November 24, 1951). Lennart was killed in an automobile crash in Hemet, California in 1971 at the age of 55.
Lennart worked in the MGM mail room in New York, a job she lost when she attempted to organize a union. After moving to Los Angeles in 1937, she reportedly worked as a secretary to Richard Schayer, and then at Metro Studios. In 1941, she was promoted from "script-girl to contract writer" at 20th Century Studios. IMDb credits her with work on 30 films and television episodes, most of which involved major stars such as Lana Turner, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, Robert Mitchum, Walter Pidgeon, Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Ava Gardner, and Cyd Charisse, and major directors such as Jules Dassin, Mervyn LeRoy, Charles Vidor, and Robert Wise. At least two of her screenplays, Merry Andrew and This Could be the Night, have been published.
Lennart's first script, The Affairs of Martha, an original comedy about the residents of a wealthy community who fear their secrets are about to be revealed in an exposé written by one of their maids, was filmed in 1942 with Spring Byington, Marjorie Main, and Richard Carlson. She was hired by MGM in a full-time position. This was followed in quick succession by A Stranger in Town (1943), Anchors Aweigh (1945), and It Happened in Brooklyn (1947).
Lennart's later screen credits include A Life of Her Own, Love Me or Leave Me (for which she received an Academy Award nomination in 1955), Merry Andrew, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, The Sundowners (which also received an Academy Award nomination), and Two for the Seesaw.
In 1966, she won the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America. By 1967 she was "commanding $100,000 per picture".
In 1968, Lennart wrote the screen adaptation of Funny Girl, which won her a Writers Guild of America award for Best Screenplay. It proved to be her last work.
Funny Girl is based on the life and career of Jewish vaudevillian comedian Fanny Brice (1891–1951) and her romantic relationship with gambler Nick Arnstein. Born to Jewish immigrants living in Manhattan's Lower East Side, Brice rose from the tenements via the Ziegfeld Follies to succeed as a stage, radio, and film performer. Her relationship with Arnstein, whom she married, has been described as "doomed."
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Isobel Lennart
Isobel Lennart (May 18, 1915 – January 25, 1971) was an American screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing the book for the Broadway musical Funny Girl which premiered in 1964, although she also wrote scripts for successful Hollywood films featuring major stars, some of which received Oscar nominations.
Lennart was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents; her father, Edward M. Hochdorf, was a dentist and her mother was Victoria Lennart Livingston. As a child, Lennart caught polio and spent 10 years in leg braces. Lennart married actor and writer John Harding in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1945. They had two children, Joshua Lennart Harding (December 27, 1947 – August 4, 1971) and Sarah Elizabeth Harding (born November 24, 1951). Lennart was killed in an automobile crash in Hemet, California in 1971 at the age of 55.
Lennart worked in the MGM mail room in New York, a job she lost when she attempted to organize a union. After moving to Los Angeles in 1937, she reportedly worked as a secretary to Richard Schayer, and then at Metro Studios. In 1941, she was promoted from "script-girl to contract writer" at 20th Century Studios. IMDb credits her with work on 30 films and television episodes, most of which involved major stars such as Lana Turner, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, Robert Mitchum, Walter Pidgeon, Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Ava Gardner, and Cyd Charisse, and major directors such as Jules Dassin, Mervyn LeRoy, Charles Vidor, and Robert Wise. At least two of her screenplays, Merry Andrew and This Could be the Night, have been published.
Lennart's first script, The Affairs of Martha, an original comedy about the residents of a wealthy community who fear their secrets are about to be revealed in an exposé written by one of their maids, was filmed in 1942 with Spring Byington, Marjorie Main, and Richard Carlson. She was hired by MGM in a full-time position. This was followed in quick succession by A Stranger in Town (1943), Anchors Aweigh (1945), and It Happened in Brooklyn (1947).
Lennart's later screen credits include A Life of Her Own, Love Me or Leave Me (for which she received an Academy Award nomination in 1955), Merry Andrew, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, The Sundowners (which also received an Academy Award nomination), and Two for the Seesaw.
In 1966, she won the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America. By 1967 she was "commanding $100,000 per picture".
In 1968, Lennart wrote the screen adaptation of Funny Girl, which won her a Writers Guild of America award for Best Screenplay. It proved to be her last work.
Funny Girl is based on the life and career of Jewish vaudevillian comedian Fanny Brice (1891–1951) and her romantic relationship with gambler Nick Arnstein. Born to Jewish immigrants living in Manhattan's Lower East Side, Brice rose from the tenements via the Ziegfeld Follies to succeed as a stage, radio, and film performer. Her relationship with Arnstein, whom she married, has been described as "doomed."