Horace Jackson (March 29, 1898 – January 26, 1952) was an American
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 ...
sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with 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 decades passed before ...
eras. Jackson also worked as a set designer early in his career.
Life and career
Born Horace Atherton Jackson on March 29, 1898, to Harry S. Jackson and Lena Atherton Jackson in Illinois. There are conflicting sources as to whether he was born in East St. Louis or Venice, Illinois, both suburbs of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, Missouri. His father died when he was five, and several years later his mother moved him and his sister, Helen, to the
Boyle Heights
Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include:
Disambiguation
*Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...
area of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in approximately 1910. Prior to working in films, Jackson was an architect.
Jackson broke into the film industry dressing sets on the 1923 silent film, ''
The Unknown Purple
''The Unknown Purple'' is a lost 1923 American silent mystery film that was written and directed by Roland West.Ben-Hur''. He continued in the set design arena during the remainder of silent era, however with the advent of talking pictures Jackson would move into the screenwriting profession. His first effort was the screenplay adaptation of Benjamin Glazer and Melchior Lengyel's story for 1929's ''Strange Cargo'', directed by
Arthur Gregor
Arthur Gregor (1890–1948) was an Austrian-born American playwright and film director.Goble p.192
Selected filmography
* ''The Count of Luxembourg'' (1926)
* '' Say It with Diamonds'' (1927)
* '' Women's Wares'' (1927)
* '' Phyllis of the Fol ...
.
During 1929 through the beginning of the 1940s, Jackson would be the screenwriter or story creator on almost 30 films. Some of his better known films are: ''
Sin Takes a Holiday
''Sin Takes a Holiday'' is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy film, directed by Paul L. Stein, from a screenplay by Horace Jackson, based on a story by Robert Milton and Dorothy Cairns. It starred Constance Bennett, Kenneth MacKenna, and ...
'' in 1930; 1937's ''
Breakfast for Two
''Breakfast for Two'' is a 1937 American screwball comedy film made by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Alfred Santell. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall and Glenda Farrell. Stanwyck and Marshall worked together once more, i ...
'', starring
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...
; and his final two films in 1941, ''Model Wife'' (starring
Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on ...
and
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...
), and ''
Bedtime Story
A bedtime story is a traditional form of storytelling, where a story is told to a child at bedtime to prepare the child for sleep. The bedtime story has long been considered "a definite institution in many families".Dickson, Marguerite Stockma ...
'' with
Fredric March
Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary ''Variety'', April 16, 1975, p ...
and
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...
. ''
Holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
'', Jackson's adaptation of
Philip Barry
Philip Jerome Quinn Barry (June 18, 1896 – December 3, 1949) was an American dramatist best known for his plays ''Holiday (play), Holiday'' (1928) and ''The Philadelphia Story (play), The Philadelphia Story'' (1939), which were both made into ...
's 1928
play of the same name
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* Pla ...
, would be honored with an Academy Award nomination at the 4th Academy Awards in 1932, however, he lost to the big winner of those awards, '' Cimarron'' (written by
Howard Estabrook
Howard Estabrook (born Howard Bolles, July 11, 1884 – July 16, 1978) was an American actor, film director and producer, and screenwriter.
Biography
Born Howard Bolles in Detroit, Michigan, Howard Estabrook began his career in 1904 as a stag ...
).
He was also reported as one of a plethora of writers who worked on the screenplay for the 1942 film ''The Night Before the Divorce'', although he received no screenplay credit. In 1947, he sued
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City an ...
for plagiarism regarding the film '' Calendar Girl'' (1947). According to a 1949
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
article, Jackson and his writing partner, Irene Homer, were successful in their suit, receiving a "substantial sum".
On January 26, 1952, Jackson would die in a car accident.