Years of drinking took its toll on the screenwriter, who succumbed to uremic poisoning on March 5, 1953, in Hollywood, California. His Berlin-born father, Franz Mankiewicz, had immigrated to New York from Hamburg in 1892 with his wife, Johanna Blumenau, a seamstress. Mankiewicz continued to write films over the next decade, but none of these works would come close to achieving the critical acclaim he received during his peak in the 1940s. Herman J. Mankiewicz was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter. Mankiewicz struggled with alcoholism and gambling during his lifetime. Under contract at Paramount (1926-32), MGM (1933-40) and RKO (1940, 1944-48). Herman married Sara Aaronson in July 1920, and together they raised three children: Johanna, Donald and Francis. Mankiewicz's Oscar statuette sold for $588,455, when it was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Memorabilia on 28 February 2012. "Mank" was a talented wordsmith and he soon became the highest paid writer in Hollywood, as his position was solidified with the advent of sound and the need for real dialogue that could be spoken onscreen by actors, not read by audiences, many of whom moved their lips while following along, eyes agog. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. Salinger was an influential 20th-century American writer. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. His penultimate gig as a producer at Paramount was on W.C. Fields's 1932 Olympics comedy Million Dollar Legs (1932), on which brother Joe worked as a writer. Free Public Reputation Profile - For Herman J. www.mylife.com. Alexander Woollcott said that Herman Mankiewicz was the "funniest man in New … As one of his admirers in the early 1930s, […] He later transitioned into screenwriting, winning an Academy Award (best writing, original screenplay) for Citizen Kane (1941) and receiving an Oscar nomination for Pride of the Yankees (1942). Mankiewicz produced and scripted many films during the 1930s, including The Wizard of Oz (1939), starring Judy Garland, and It's a Wonderful World (1939), featuring Jimmy Stewart. Find out about the life of General John J. Pershing who led the American Expeditionary force during World War I on Biography.com. Herman Mankiewicz, American screenwriter, journalist, playwright, and wit, notable as a member of the Algonquin Round Table and as the coauthor of the screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941), for which he won an Academy Award. Six years later, he moved to Hollywood, California, where he gained experience writing screenplays and adaptations. Herman J. Mankiewicz was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter. "In January, 1928, there was a newspaper item reporting that he (Mankiewicz) was in New York 'lining up a new set of newspaper feature writers and playwrights to bring to Hollywood,' she wrote, and 'most of the newer writers on Paramount's staff who … He also tried his hand as a Broadway dramatist. He established himself as a prime wit rivaled only by George S. Kaufman, and pieces he wrote appeared in the top magazines of the time, including "Vanity Fair." Mankiewicz took a degree in philosophy at Columbia and became an editor of the "American Jewish Chronicle" before going to fight the Great War with the Marine Corps.The hard-drinking Mankiewicz, like so many of the screenwriters of the Talkie period, started out as a newspaperman. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and … Who Was Herman J. Mankiewicz? After that film gave his career a boost, film critic Pauline Kael wrote that he became even more erratic and unreliable due to his drinking. After his return to the US, he became drama editor for "The New York Times" and "The New Yorker" magazine, before his move to Hollywood in 1926. His biography is available in 22 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 19 in 2019). He worked his way up the ranks at Paramount Pictures, becoming head of the scenario department. Joseph Leo Mankiewicz ( / ˈmæŋkəwɪts /; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. On TRENDCELEBNOW.COM, Herman J. Mankiewicz is one of the successful Screenwriter.