Keene Thompson
Keene Thompson | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Keene Thompson November 15, 1885 |
Died | July 11, 1937 | (aged 51)
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, CA |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Story writer Scenario writer Screenwriter |
Years active | 1920–1937 |
Children | 3 (deceased) |
Keene Thompson (November 15, 1885, in Minneapolis, Minnesota – July 11, 1937, in Hollywood, California) was a story, scenario and screenwriter who worked in the film industry from 1920 to 1937.[1][2]
Career
Thompson had a small acting role in the 1917 Douglas Fairbanks Sr. film Reaching for the Moon,[3][4] but his first writing work was a screenplay for Fairbanks.[5] His last was scripting the Jack Benny musical Artists and Models.[6]
Some of his early silent film work was for the Christie Film Company,[7] but his later screenwriting was associated primarily with Paramount Pictures where he became a general story advisor.[5] At Paramount he was known for his work with Adolphe Menjou,[8][9] and had written scripts and special materials for such stars as Raymond Griffith, Gary Cooper and Clara Bow,[10] such as Clarence G. Badger's Paths to Paradise, Victor Fleming's The Virginian, and Frank Tuttle's True to the Navy.[10]
Fighting Caravans (1931), a story of the caravans of wagon trains that supplied freight to the pre-Civil War Old West before the completion of the transcontinental railways, was his adaption of a Zane Grey novel of the same name.[11] His work Man Against Woman for Irving Cummings was called a "forceful drama" and an "entertaining film".[12] During the later part of his career Thompson specialized in comedies. The more notable of these included Leo McCarey's Six of a Kind (1934) which used the top Paramount actors of the time, including Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, George Burns, W.C. Fields, Gracie Allen, Alison Skipworth.[10] The 1945 Frank R. Strayer comedy film Mama Loves Papa was based upon his screenplay for the 1933 Norman Z. McLeod film of the same name.[13][14]
Keene became ill in June 1937, just after completing the script for the Jack Benny musical comedy Artists and Models.[6] On July 11, 1937, he died of lobar pneumonia.[5] His body is interred in the Great Mausoleum, Columbarium of the Graces at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, CA.
Filmography
Silent films
- The Inferior Sex (1920)
- Silk Stockings (1920)
- Hoodooed (1920)[15]
- Teasing the Soil (1920)[15]
- Beating Cheaters (1920)[15]
- Kissed in a Harem (1920)
- Good Morning, Nurse (1920)
- Why Cooks Go Cuckoo (1920)
- Oh, Brother! (1921)
- Prepared to Die (1923)
- Let's Go (1923)
- Going South (1923)
- Danger Ahead (1923)
- The Godmothers (1923)
- Easy Pickin's (1924)
- High Gear (1924)
- Border Women (1924)
- Cornfed (1924)
- A Regular Fellow (1925)
- Paths to Paradise (1925)
- The Night Club (1925)
- Why Hesitate? (1925)
- A Rarin' Romeo (1925)
- Love Goofy (1925)
- Great Guns (1925)
- French Pastry (1925)
- Going Crooked (1926)
- The Daffy Dill (1926)
- Now We're in the Air (1927)
- The Rough Riders (1927)
- Wedding Bill$ (1927)
- Someone to Love (1928)
- His Private Life (1928)
- Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928)
- Feel My Pulse (1928)
- The Wolf Song (1929)
Sound films
- Acquitted (1929)[16]
- The Virginian (1929)
- Acquitted (1929)
- True to the Navy (1930)
- Only the Brave (1930)
- Fighting Caravans (1931)
- Love Among the Millionaires (1930)
- Palmy Days (1931)
- Caught (1931)
- The Sin Ship (1931)
- June Moon (1931)
- No More Orchids (1932)
- Man Against Woman (1932)
- The Last Man (1932)
- War Correspondent (1932)
- As the Devil Commands (1932)
- Mama Loves Papa (1933)[13]
- The Cheyenne Kid (1933)
- Air Hostess (1933)
- Springtime for Henry (1934)
- Many Happy Returns (1934)
- Six of a Kind (1934)[10]
- Paris in Spring (1935)
- Love in Bloom (1935)
- Wives Never Know (1936)
- Artists and Models (1937)[5][6]
- Mama Loves Papa (1945) (story)[14]
References
- ^ Henryk Hoffmann (2000). "A" Western filmmakers: a biographical dictionary of writers, directors, cinematographers, composers, actors and actresses. McFarland. pp. 87, 104. ISBN 0-7864-0696-8.
- ^ "Keene Thompson". Variety. July 14, 1937.
- ^ Jay Robert Nash; Robert Connelly; Stanley Ralph Ross (1988). Motion Picture Guide Silent Film 1910-1936. Cinebooks. p. 229. ISBN 0-933997-10-8.
- ^ "Keene Thompson with Fairbanks". Motion Picture World. September 22, 1917. p. 1831.
- ^ a b c d "Veteran Screen Writer, Keene Thompson, Dies". Milwaukee Journal. July 12, 1937. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
- ^ a b c Motion Picture Herald. Vol. 124, Issues 1-6. Quigley Pub. Co. 1936. p. 92.
- ^ International motion picture almanac. Quigley Publications. 1943. p. 374.
- ^ John Douglas Eames (1985). The Paramount story. Crown. pp. 51, 55, 79, 104. ISBN 0-517-55348-1.
- ^ "Adolphe Menjou at California". San Jose News. November 20, 1928. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d Erickson, Hal. "Keene Thompson biography". Allmovie. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
- ^ "Gary Cooper, State, 'fighting Caravans'". Reading Eagle. February 15, 1931. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
- ^ William Gaines (October 19, 1933). "About New York". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
- ^ a b The New York Times film reviews, Volume 2. 1932. p. 963.
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ignored (help) - ^ a b John Flowers; Paul Frizler (2004). Psychotherapists on film, 1899-1999: a worldwide guide to over 5000 films. McFarland. p. 370. ISBN 0-7864-1908-3.
- ^ a b c Library of Congress Copyright Office (1920). Catalogue of copyright entries: Pamphlets, leaflets, contributions to newspapers or periodicals, etc.; lectures, sermons, addresses for oral delivery; dramatic compositions; maps; motion pictures. Government Printing Office. pp. 82, 164, 531.
- ^ American Film Institute (1997). The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-520-20969-9.
External links
- Keene Thompson at the Internet Movie Database
- Keene Thompson at the Allmovie