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Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. (September 19, 1910 – April 11, 1988) was an American screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet. He was the son of film pioneer, producer Jesse L. Lasky and his wife, paint...view moreJesse Louis Lasky, Jr. (September 19, 1910 – April 11, 1988) was an American screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet. He was the son of film pioneer, producer Jesse L. Lasky and his wife, painter and Bessie Ida Ginsberg.Jesse was born on Broadway in New York City where his father was a successful producer of vaudeville and musicals. When Lasky produced Hollywood’s first feature film, The Squaw Man in 1913, Jesse and his mother were brought west. Jesse grew up in Hollywood’s dusty streets with friends who were the sons of other moguls, such as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. He was educated at Blair Academy, the Hun School of Princeton and the Grand Central School of Art. He traveled extensively in Europe with his parents and was painted in Paris by Tsuguharu Foujita in 1927. He published three acclaimed books of poetry in his teens and attended The University of Dijon, France, where he was awarded a degree in literature.His father’s bankruptcy forced Jesse home to Hollywood where he wrote ‘potboiler’ novels and became a ‘reader’ for Sol Wurtzel. At this time, Jesse briefly dated Jean Harlow. He co-wrote a play with Gladys Unger, Private Beach, which became a film, Music Is Magic (1935).In England he worked for Gaumont British adding dialogue to films by various directors including Alfred Hitchcock. On his return he wrote a number of ‘B pictures’ in Hollywood and became a founding member of the Writer’s Guild. In 1938 his father’s former partner, Cecil B. De Mille, hired him as one of the writing team for Union Pacific. He wrote a further 7 films for De Mille including Samson and Delilah (1949) for which he won the Box Office Magazine Award and The Ten Commandments (1956) for which he won the Christopher Award and the Box Office Award.During World War II, Lasky served as Captain in the Combat Photographic Unit of the US Army Signal Corps during four campaigns in the South Pacific, and was decorated by General Douglas MacArthur. He organized the Army School of Film Training at the Signal Corps Photographic Center, where writers were instructed to script training films for every branch of the military service.In total, Jesse wrote eight novels (including Spindrift and Naked in a Cactus Garden), five plays and more than 50 screenplays in Italy, Austria, Denmark, Spain and France. He worked with Harry Cohn, Darryl Zanuck, Nick Ray and Sam Fuller.He lectured on creative writing and Hollywood history at many American and British institutions, including the Oxford Union. He also served as Vice President of the Screen Branch of the Writer’s Guild of America. He was a member of the Company of Military Historians and The Garrick Club in London.In 1962, Jesse and his 3rd wife, writer Pat Silver, moved to London. Together they wrote 7 films, 3 films for TV and many scripts for TV series including The New Breed, The Avengers, The Saint, Space 1999 and Danger Man.Jesse Lasky, Jr. died in London in 1988 of pancreatic cancer.His autobiography Whatever Happened to Hollywood? was originally published in 1973 and was republished in 2021 in a deluxe edition by his stepson, composer and author Richard Niles.view less