Zoe Akins
Encyclopedia
Zoë Akins was an American playwright
, poet
, and author
.
, Akins was educated in Illinois
and later in St. Louis
, where she began her writing career. While living in the city, she wrote poetry
and criticism
for various magazine
s and newspaper
s.
that were moderately successful. (Ethel Barrymore
starred in Declassée.) Akins endured a dry spell throughout the 1920s.
During this time several of her early plays were adapted for the screen. These adaptations were mostly failures, released as silent film
s in a time when the industry was transitioning to sound. While some "talkie" stars had notable roles in the films (Walter Pidgeon
and a young Clark Gable
), most of the films are now believed to be lost. Eventually, Akins found a small measure of fame with the play, The Greeks Had a Word For It, produced in 1930. The play about gold-digging women and the men they fool became the young playwright's first notable production.
In the early 1930s, Akins became more active in film, writing several screenplays as well as licensing minor adaptations of her work—such as The Greeks Had a Word for It which was adapted twice, in 1932 (as The Greeks Had a Word for Them
) and 1938 (as Three Blind Mice
) -- neither was a hit. Two highlights of this period are the films Sarah and Son
(1930) and Morning Glory (1933), the latter film remade as Stage Struck
. While both films earned their respective female leads (Ruth Chatterton
and Katharine Hepburn
) Academy Award
nominations, neither was enough to launch Akins' career.
Finally, Akins received recognition. In 1935, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
for her dramatization of Edith Wharton
's The Old Maid, a melodrama set in New York City and written in five episodes stretching across time from 1839 to 1854. A film version of The Old Maid followed in 1939, starring Bette Davis
.
Akins also adapted the Alexandre Dumas
novel, La dame aux camélias
which was adapted into the film Camille
in 1936. The film starred Greta Garbo
, Robert Taylor
, and Lionel Barrymore
, and earned Garbo her third Oscar nomination.
To Akins' surprise, she was thrust into notoriety again in 1953, when Jean Negulesco
directed an adaptation of The Greeks Had a Word for It. The film, titled How to Marry a Millionaire
, became a box office sensation and helped launch the career of its star, Marilyn Monroe
.
Monroe's role in the Akins' play helped the rising star become a cultural icon, and encouraged Akins to pursue a short stint as a writer for several television variety programs.
, and after several Hollywood films, she returned to writing plays and spending time with her family. She was the great-aunt of actress Laurie Metcalf
. She lived for a short time in Morrisonville, Illinois
.
Akins died in her sleep on the eve of her seventy-second birthday, in Los Angeles, California
.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Early years
Born in Humansville, MissouriHumansville, Missouri
Humansville is a city in Polk County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,020 at the 2009 census. It is part of the Springfield, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, Akins was educated in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and later in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, where she began her writing career. While living in the city, she wrote poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and criticism
Criticism
Criticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...
for various magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s and newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s.
Career
Her first major dramatic work was Papa, written in 1914. The comedy failed, but she continued to write. She followed early failure with The Magical City and Declassée, two playsPlay (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
that were moderately successful. (Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
starred in Declassée.) Akins endured a dry spell throughout the 1920s.
During this time several of her early plays were adapted for the screen. These adaptations were mostly failures, released as silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s in a time when the industry was transitioning to sound. While some "talkie" stars had notable roles in the films (Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
and a young Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
), most of the films are now believed to be lost. Eventually, Akins found a small measure of fame with the play, The Greeks Had a Word For It, produced in 1930. The play about gold-digging women and the men they fool became the young playwright's first notable production.
In the early 1930s, Akins became more active in film, writing several screenplays as well as licensing minor adaptations of her work—such as The Greeks Had a Word for It which was adapted twice, in 1932 (as The Greeks Had a Word for Them
The Greeks Had a Word for Them
The Greeks Had a Word for Them , also known as Three Broadway Girls, is a Pre-Code comedy film directed by Lowell Sherman, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and released by United Artists. It stars Joan Blondell, Madge Evans, and Ina Claire and is based on the play The Greeks Had a Word for It by Zoe Akins...
) and 1938 (as Three Blind Mice
Three Blind Mice (film)
Three Blind Mice is a 2008 feature film written, directed by and starring Matthew Newton. It is the second film directed by Matthew Newton and premiered at Sydney Film Festival in 2008. To date it has screened at over fourteen international and Australian festivals...
) -- neither was a hit. Two highlights of this period are the films Sarah and Son
Sarah and Son
Sarah and Son is a 1930 film which tells the story of a woman who searches for the son that her abusive husband sold to a wealthy family. It stars Ruth Chatterton, Fredric March, Fuller Mellish Jr., Gilbert Emery and Doris Lloyd....
(1930) and Morning Glory (1933), the latter film remade as Stage Struck
Stage Struck (film)
Stage Struck is a 1958 American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. The screenplay by Augustus and Ruth Goetz is based on a play by Zoe Akins, which served as the basis for the 1933 film Morning Glory starring Katharine Hepburn....
. While both films earned their respective female leads (Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...
and Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
) Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nominations, neither was enough to launch Akins' career.
Finally, Akins received recognition. In 1935, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
for her dramatization of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
's The Old Maid, a melodrama set in New York City and written in five episodes stretching across time from 1839 to 1854. A film version of The Old Maid followed in 1939, starring Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
.
Akins also adapted the Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
novel, La dame aux camélias
The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
which was adapted into the film Camille
Camille (1936 film)
Camille is an American romantic drama film directed by George Cukor and produced by Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman, from a screenplay by James Hilton, Zoe Akins and Frances Marion. The picture is based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils...
in 1936. The film starred Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
, and Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
, and earned Garbo her third Oscar nomination.
To Akins' surprise, she was thrust into notoriety again in 1953, when Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....
directed an adaptation of The Greeks Had a Word for It. The film, titled How to Marry a Millionaire
How to Marry a Millionaire
How to Marry a Millionaire is a 1953 romantic comedy film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Jean Negulesco and produced and written by Nunnally Johnson. The screenplay was based on the plays The Greeks Had a Word for It by Zoe Akins and Loco by Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert. The music score...
, became a box office sensation and helped launch the career of its star, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
.
Monroe's role in the Akins' play helped the rising star become a cultural icon, and encouraged Akins to pursue a short stint as a writer for several television variety programs.
Personal life
Despite the fame afforded her, Akins didn't pursue a screenwriting career beyond her early successes. In 1932, she married Hugo RumboldHugo Rumbold
Hugo Cecil Levinge Rumbold was a British theatrical scenery and costume designer.-Life and career:Rumbold was the son of Sir Horace Rumbold, eighth baronet of Woodhall , and his second wife, Louisa Anne , daughter of Thomas Russell Crampton...
, and after several Hollywood films, she returned to writing plays and spending time with her family. She was the great-aunt of actress Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf
Lauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf is an American actress. She is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and as Debbie Salt in Scream 2...
. She lived for a short time in Morrisonville, Illinois
Morrisonville, Illinois
Morrisonville is a village in Christian County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,056 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Morrisonville is located at ....
.
Akins died in her sleep on the eve of her seventy-second birthday, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.