Frank Partos (born Ferenc Pártos; July 2, 1901 – December 23, 1956) was a Hungarian-American screenwriter and an early executive committee member of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to mer ...

, which he helped found.

Emigration from Europe

Born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

on July 2, 1901, Pártos began as a clerk and, sailed to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S/S ''Mount Carroll'', which departed the

Port of Hamburg The Port of Hamburg (german: Hamburger Hafen, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (''Tor zur Welt''), it is the country's largest seaport by volu ...

, Germany, on April 28, 1921, and arrived at the Port of New York on May 10. According to the ship's passenger manifest, his destination was to his stepfather Ignatz Reitzer of 214 Hope Avenue, in Passaic, New Jersey.

Career

He arrived in California in the late 1920s with a letter of introduction to

Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 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 ...

. Partos was given a position as a reader and later given a book by

Vicki Baum Hedwig "Vicki" Baum (; he, ויקי באום; January 24, 1888 – August 29, 1960) was an Austrian writer. She is known for the novel ''Menschen im Hotel'' ("People at a Hotel", 1929 — published in English as '' Grand Hotel''), one of h ...

to write a synopsis. Thalberg decided to make '' Grand Hotel'' (1932) based on that synopsis and had Partos work as a screenwriter on the project. Partos did not get screen credit and, because of that slight, left MGM. In the 1930s, he was a staff writer at

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

, during the early years to the

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...

era. In 1939 he moved to

RKO Radio Pictures 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 ...

, where he collaborated on the early noir film '' Stranger on the Third Floor'' (1940). During the mid-1930s Partos worked extensively with screenwriter

Charles Brackett Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He collaborated with Billy Wilder on sixteen films. Life and career Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the son of ...

, and was Brackett's first choice for a writing partner. In 1944, he co-wrote the screenplay for '' The Uninvited'', an early haunted house story starring

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985. He is remembered for his Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning ...

and

Gail Russell Gail Russell (born Betty Gale Russell; September 21, 1924 – August 26, 1961) was an American film and television actress. Early years Gail Russell was born to George and Gladys (Barnet) Russell in Chicago and then moved to the Los Angeles ...

. He shared an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for ''

The Snake Pit ''The Snake Pit'' is a 1948 American psychological drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick. Based on Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiograph ...

'' (1948) with Millen Brand. He also co-wrote the 1951 film noir ''

The House on Telegraph Hill ''House on Telegraph Hill'' is a 1951 American film noir starring Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, and William Lundigan, and directed by Robert Wise. The film received an Academy Award nomination for its art direction. Telegraph Hill is ...

'', directed by

Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of M ...

. Partos died December 23, 1956.

Selected filmography

* ''

Her Bodyguard ''Her Bodyguard'' is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring Edmund Lowe, Wynne Gibson and Edward Arnold.Marshall p.315-16 Cast * Edmund Lowe as Casey McCarthy * Wynne Gibson as Margot Brienne * ...

'' (1933) * ''

The Jungle Princess ''The Jungle Princess'' is a 1936 American adventure film directed by Wilhelm Thiele starring Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland. Plot Christopher Powell is in Malaya with his fiancée and her father, capturing wild animals. While out hunting he is ...

'' (1936) * '' Night of Mystery'' (1937) * '' Rio'' (1939) * '' Stranger on the Third Floor'' (1940) * '' The Uninvited'' (1944) * ''

'' (1948) * ''

'' (1951) * ''

Night Without Sleep ''Night Without Sleep'' is a 1952 American film noir mystery film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Gary Merrill, Linda Darnell and Hildegarde Neff. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Plot A composer, Richard Morton ex ...

'' (1952) * ''

Port Afrique ''Port Afrique'' is a 1956 British drama film based on the 1948 novel of the same name by Bernard Victor Dryer (1918–1995). The colour film was directed by Rudolph Maté and the adapted screenplay was written by John Cresswell. The film w ...

'' (1956)

References

External links

*
AllMovie bio
1901 births 1956 deaths American male screenwriters Robert Meltzer Award winners 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters Hungarian emigrants to the United States {{US-screen-writer-stub