Ethel Borden Harriman (December 11, 1897July 4, 1953) was an American heiress, actress, and author who worked as a screenwriter at

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

and

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

during the 1930s.

Early life

Ethel Harriman was born into a wealthy New York family in 1897. Her father,

J. Borden Harriman Jefferson Borden Harriman (September 20, 1864 – December 2, 1914) was a New York financier and member of the Gilded Age, Gilded Age's "hunting set". He was best known as the supportive husband of Florence Jaffray Harriman, a socialite who beca ...

, was a banker, and her mother, Florence "Daisy" Hurst, was a suffragette and diplomat who served as the Minister to Norway after her father's death. Her paternal grandparents were Laura ( Low) Harriman and banker

Oliver Harriman Oliver Harriman (September 16, 1829 – March 12, 1904) was an American businessman and member of the wealthy Harriman family. Early life Oliver Harriman was born on September 16, 1829 in New York City. His parents were Orlando Harriman (1790� ...

. Her maternal grandparents were Caroline Eliza ( Jaffray) Hurst and F. W. J. Hurst, who became wealthy in the cross-Atlantic shipping business. Ethel served with the Women's Ambulance Service in France during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and afterward spent two years as an actress in a theatrical stock company.

Career

She played Grace Torrence in a 1933 production of Design For Living and began writing screenplays after being encouraged to do so by playwright

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

. She published a comedic book, ''Romantic, I Call It'', in 1926, and took on writing assignments in Hollywood at MGM, penning films like ''

They Wanted to Marry ''They Wanted to Marry'' is a 1937 romantic comedy film directed by Lew Landers from a screenplay by Paul Yawitz and Ethel Borden, based on a story by Larry Bachmann and Daniel L. Teilhet. RKO produced and distributed the film, releasing it o ...

'' and ''

I Live My Life ''I Live My Life'' is a 1935 American comedy-drama film starring Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, and Frank Morgan, and is based on the story "Claustrophobia" by A. Carter Goodloe. Plot summary Kay Bentley (Joan Crawford), a bored socialite seeks a ...

'' under the name Ethel Borden. She continued to act in the 1930s, appearing in productions such as the ''

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...

''. She is credited by the Broadway Internet Database as translating ''Hedda Gabler'' in 1942, and writing ''Anne of England'' in 1941. Ancestry census records for 1940 show her living with the 46 year old Mary Cass Canfield (author of the one act play ''Lackeys of the Moon'') in Nassau, New York, and they were both hired by Broadway producer Gilbert Miller, so the 2 women probably collaborated on ''Anne of England'' and other works for Miller.

Personal life

In 1918 Ethel married stockbroker Henry Potter Russell (1893–1943) in the

American Cathedral in Paris The American Cathedral in Paris (french: Cathédrale Américaine de Paris), formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is one of the oldest English-speaking churches in Paris. It is the gathering church for the Convocation of Epi ...

on the Avenue de l'Alma. The "quiet wartime ceremony" was only attended by a few "intimate friends, among them Ambassador and Mrs. Sharp,

Mr. ''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...

and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, and General Lewis. Mrs. Vincent Astor of New York served as matron of honor and Lieutenant Minot was best man." Henry was a son of Charles H. Russell of New York. Before their divorce in 1925, they were the parents of: * Phyllis Russell (1919–2007), who married five times. * Charles Howland Russell (1921–1981), who married Alice Gwynne Allen, a daughter of Horace Ransom Bigelow Allen and Alice ( Gwynne) Preston. Later in her life, Borden was in a long-term relationship with the British novelist

Pamela Frankau Pamela Sydney Frankau (3 January 1908 – 8 June 1967) was a popular English novelist from a prominent artistic and literary family. She was abandoned by her novelist father Gilbert Frankau at an early age, and she became a prolific writer. S ...

. She died of leukemia on July 4, 1953, aged 55, in New York City.

Selected filmography

*''

After Office Hours ''After Office Hours'' is a 1935 crime drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Clark Gable and Constance Bennett. The screenplay was written by Herman Mankiewicz. Plot Jim Branch (Clark Gable), a newspaper editor, falls for wealt ...

'' (1935) * ''

'' (1935) *''

'' (1937)

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Borden, Ethel 1897 births 1953 deaths American women screenwriters Screenwriters from New York (state) Writers from New York City Harriman family 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters