Frances Marion
Writing
Frances Marion (November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards. Born Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco, California, she worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during World War I. On her return home, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired as a writing assistant, an actress and general assistant by "Lois Weber Productions", a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber.She has a face as an actor, but she preferred a work that she isn't in the camera. She learned how to write a scenario from Weber. Marion wrote a story for a movie for her, but it burned before it was released. As "Frances Marion", she wrote many scripts for actress/filmmaker Mary Pickford, including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The Poor Little Rich Girl, as well as scripts for numerous other successful films of the 1920s and 1930s.Marion went to New York for her job, and her husband decline to live with her and divorced. She became the first female to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1930 for the film The Big House, she received the Academy Award for Best Story for The Champ in 1932, both featuring Wallace Beery, and co-wrote Min and Bill starring her friend Marie Dressler and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films. She directed and occasionally appeared in some of Mary Pickford's early movies. For many years she was under contract to MGM Studios, but, independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing stage plays and novels. Frances Marion published a memoir Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood in 1972. Marion died the following year of a ruptured aneurysm in Los Angeles.
Known for
Writing156
movieDinner at Eight
1989
Original Film Writer
movieThe Champ
1979
Story
movieGreen Hell
1940
Screenplay, Original Story
movieKnight Without Armour
1937
Adaptation, Writer
movieLove from a Stranger
1937
Screenplay, Adaptation
movieCamille
1936
Screenplay
movieRiffraff
1936
Screenplay, Story
movieDinner at Eight
1933
Screenplay
movieHold Your Man
1933
Writer
movieSecrets
1933
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieCynara
1932
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieBlondie of the Follies
1932
Screenplay, Story
movieEmma
1932
Story
movieThe Champ
1931
Writer, Story
movieThe Big House
1931
Writer
movieThe Secret Six
1931
Writer
movieAnna Christie
1930
Adaptation
movieMin and Bill
1930
Writer
movieThe Big House
1930
Writer
movieGood News
1930
Scenario Writer, Screenplay
movieLet Us Be Gay
1930
Dialogue, Writer
movieThe Big House
1930
Dialogue, Story, Writer
movieAnna Christie
1930
Screenplay
movieThe Rogue Song
1930
Writer
movieTheir Own Desire
1929
Screenplay
movieThe Wind
1928
Screenplay
movieThe Cossacks
1928
Adaptation
movieKit Carson
1928
Story
movieThe Sunset Legion
1928
Story, Scenario Writer
movieLove
1927
Writer
movieJesse James
1927
Screenplay, Story
movieMr. Wu
1927
Writer
movieThe Red Mill
1927
Scenario Writer, Adaptation
movieDon Mike
1927
Story
movieThe Scarlet Letter
1927
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Son of the Sheik
1926
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Two-Gun Man
1926
Co-Writer
moviePartners Again
1926
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe First Year
1926
Writer
movieStella Dallas
1925
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieLazybones
1925
Scenario Writer, Screenplay
movieThank You
1925
Screenplay
movieThe Dark Angel
1925
Writer
movieGraustark
1925
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieLightnin'
1925
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieRidin' the Wind
1925
Writer
movieA Thief in Paradise
1925
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieZander the Great
1925
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieHis Supreme Moment
1925
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Lady
1925
Writer
movieSundown
1924
Writer
movieTarnish
1924
Screenplay
movieCytherea
1924
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieSecrets
1924
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln
1924
Story, Screenplay
movieThe Song of Love
1923
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe French Doll
1923
Writer, Scenario Writer
movieDulcy
1923
Writer
movieThe Love Piker
1923
Scenario Writer
movieWithin the Law
1923
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Famous Mrs. Fair
1923
Screenplay
movieThe Voice from the Minaret
1923
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Toll of the Sea
1923
Story, Writer
movieEast Is West
1922
Writer
movieSherlock Brown
1922
Writer
movieSonny
1922
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieBack Pay
1922
Writer
movieThe Love Light
1921
Writer
movieThe World and His Wife
1920
Screenplay
movieGo and Get It
1920
Scenario Writer
movieHumoresque
1920
Writer
movieThe Flapper
1920
Screenplay, Story
moviePollyanna
1920
Adaptation, Screenplay
movieThe Cinema Murder
1919
Scenario Writer, Screenplay
movieThe Dark Star
1919
Writer
movieThe Goat
1918
Screenplay, Story
movieJohanna Enlists
1918
Writer
movieThe City of Dim Faces
1918
Screenplay
movieHow Could You, Jean?
1918
Screenplay
movieM'Liss
1918
Writer
movieStella Maris
1918
Writer
movieThe Amazons
1917
Writer
movieBeloved Adventuress
1917
Screenplay, Story
movieDarkest Russia
1917
Writer
movieForget-Me-Not
1917
Writer
movieThe Poor Little Rich Girl
1917
Scenario Writer, Writer
movieA Girl's Folly
1917
Writer
movieA Square Deal
1917
Writer
movieA Hungry Heart
1917
Writer
movieA Woman Alone
1917
Writer
movieAll Man
1916
Writer
movieThe Hidden Scar
1916
Writer
movieThe Gilded Cage
1916
Writer
movieFriday the 13th
1916
Writer
movieThe Summer Girl
1916
Writer
movieA Woman's Way
1916
Writer
movieThe Feast of Life
1916
Screenplay
movieThe Yellow Passport
1916
Scenario Writer
movieThe Foundling
1916
Writer
movieCamille
1915
Screenplay
movieEsmeralda
1915
Writer
movieRags
1915
Writer
Acting3
movieThe Women Who Run Hollywood
2016
Self (archive footage)
movieWithout Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood
2000
Self (archive footage)
movieA Girl of Yesterday
1915
Rosanna Danford
Directing3
movieThe Song of Love
1923
Director
movieJust Around the Corner
1921
Director
movieThe Love Light
1921
Director
Crew1
movieThe Pirate
1948
Additional Writing
Production1
movieThe Nth Commandment
1923
Producer