LEGACY
Ben Hecht
“[Hecht] was easily one of Hollywood’s most in-demand writers, famously doing a feverish one-week rewrite of Gone With the Wind after the studio closed down production less than a month into the shoot, terrified the film was going to be a disaster.”
When film lovers imagine the prototypical screenwriter from Hollywood’s early years—the hard-drinking, sharp-witted cynic who was part poet and part bon vivant—they’re probably picturing Ben Hecht. Nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of two, including one at the very first Oscar ceremony, Hecht was a playwright, journalist, and novelist before moving west to write for the movies. ...
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