Everett Freeman

Everett Freeman was born in New York, New York. His prolific career as a short-story writer, screenplay writer, film and TV producer spanned 50 years. After graduating from Columbia University, he began his career as a journalist and, at the age of 18, was the youngest writer to ever have a short story accepted by the Saturday Evening Post. In the early 1930's, he wrote and produced radio comedy including the hit show, Baby Snooks which starred Fanny Bryce. Hollywood picked up one of his original stories, "1,000 Dollars a Minute", which was made into a movie in 1935 starring Roger Pryor and Leila Hyams. This opened doors for him, and he was invited to co-write the screenplay for "Married Before Breakfast" in 1937 and "The Chaser" in 1938. In 1939, he was asked to write the screenplay for "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" starring and written by W.C Fields who had been a childhood hero for Freeman. Freeman continued writing screenplays, including "Larceny, Inc." in 1942, starring Edward G. Robinson and "The Princess and the Pirate" in 1944 starring Bob Hope. During World War II, Freeman was conscripted to make training films for soldiers. At the same time, Warner Brothers decided to make a fundraiser movie and wanted to put as many celebrities as they could get into cameo roles in order to raise as much money as possible for the war effort. Freeman was asked to write the plot for this film. "Thank Your Lucky Stars" was born of this effort in which would-be stars crashed an all-star revue in the hope that they would get noticed. The irony was that all the performers were already stars. It featured such notable stars as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Eddie Cantor, and Errol Flynn. All the actors and production staff, including Freeman, gave up their fee for the making of this film which raised over $2 million dollars. Freeman was one of 36 writers, one of whom was his brother Devery, who contributed to the all-star cast production of "Ziegfeld Follies" in 1946. In 1947, he wrote the screenplay for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which starred Danny Kaye, Not long after, two original stories, "Cleopatra Arms" and "Miss Grant Takes Richmond", each co-written by Everett and his brother Devery were adapted as screenplays for the 1949 movies "A Kiss in the Dark" starring David Niven and "Miss Grant Takes Richmond", starring Lucille Ball. In 1951, Freeman produced his first movie, "Jim Thorpe - All American" which he also co-wrote the screenplay for. Soon after, the movie "Too Young to Kiss" starring June Allyson was released which was based on an original story written by Freeman. Another of his original stories was made into the movie, "Million Dollar Mermaid" starring Esther Williams. This was followed by the movie, "Kelly and Me" which was also based on an original story penned by Freeman. In 1958, her wrote the screenplay for "Marjorie Morningstar" starring Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly. In the mid 1950s, Freeman decided to embark into the world of television with a debut as the producer of the Bachelor Father series starring John Forsythe. He also applied his talents to writing and producing shows for Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and writing scripts for General Electric Theater. Freeman returned to movie-making in 1962 writing the screenplay for "Sunday in New York" starring Rod Taylor, Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Robert Culp. In 1966, he wrote the script for "The Glass Bottom Boat" starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor. He co-wrote the screenplay for a subsequent film, "Where Were You When the Lights Went Out" that also starred Doris Day. More than three dozen movies were written, adapted or produced by Everett Freeman. He received an Academy Award nomination for his 1947 screenplay, "It Happened on Fifth Avenue," with Victor Moore and Charles Ruggles. After retiring from the entertainment industry, due to health concerns, he taught writing classes at UCLA for a number of years. He was a charter member of the Writers Guild of America and founder and president emeritus of the Producers Guild of America. In 1947, Everett fell in love with the beautiful red-haired actress and model, Roseanne Murray. They married in early 1948. They had three children together, two daughters: Elizabeth and Andrea, and a son, Michael. They divorced in 1966. Everett later married Helena Matthews who was originally from England. They had one son together named Jaik. Everett loved playing chess and was highly skilled at the game. He would engage in chess matches with masters. He also loved to play golf. His other interests included Geology, Astronomy, and Philosophy. He was also a great fan of science fiction.