Edmund Hall North (March 12, 1911 – August 28, 1990) was an American screenwriter who shared an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Francis Ford Coppola in 1970 for their script for Patton.[1][2][3]
North wrote the screenplay for the 1951 science-fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still and is credited with creating the famous line from the film, "Klaatu barada nikto".[4]
He was a son of Bobby North and Stella Maury who performed in vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies.[1] North began writing plays while attending Culver Military Academy in Indiana and at Stanford University. As a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, he made training and educational films.
North was a president of the screen branch of the Writers Guild of America in which he served on more than 40 committees, including the contract-bargaining panel.
North and his wife, Collette had two daughters. He lived in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and was 79 when he died.
Credits (alone or in collaboration)
[edit]- One Night of Love (1934)
- Bunker Bean (1936)
- I'm Still Alive (1940)
- Dishonored Lady (1947)
- Colorado Territory (1949)
- Flamingo Road (1949)
- Young Man With a Horn (1950)
- Only the Valiant (1950)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1952)
- Destry (1954)
- The Far Horizons (1955)
- The Proud Ones (1956)
- The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958) (screenstory only, basis for the screenplay by Danny Arnold)
- Cowboy (1958) (fronted for Dalton Trumbo)
- Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
- Damn the Defiant (1962) aka H.M.S. Defiant
- Patton (1970)
- Meteor (1979)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) (screenplay credit)
References
[edit]- ^ a b Oliver, Myrna (August 30, 1990). "Edmund H. North; Shared Oscar for 'Patton' Screenplay". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
- ^ Suid, Lawrence H. (2002). Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film. University Press of Kentucky pg. 267. ISBN 978-0-8131-9018-1.
- ^ Dale, Wanda (February 4, 1970). "'Patton' is a magnificent monument to a hero". New York Daily News. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
- ^ Shermer, Michael (December 11, 2008). "Reel Life: The Day the Earth Stood Still". Scientific American. Retrieved April 13, 2021.