Joseph Petracca (December 16, 1913 – September 28, 1963) was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and television writer of Italian descent. Born and raised in Brooklyn,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Petracca moved to Los Angeles after the end of World War II (during which time he worked as a machinist in the Brooklyn Navy Yard) and worked a series of full-time jobs, mainly as a steam press operator for a laundry and linen rental service, while he pursued his writing in the evenings and began raising a family with his wife Lena. In the early fifties Petracca began publishing fiction in the popular magazines of the day. Throughout the fifties Petracca wrote and collaborated on numerous films for such studios as

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and

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and in the sixties wrote episodes for such television shows as The Untouchables, Rawhide and Route 66 (TV series). Petracca is survived by a daughter, Frances Petracca, a neuroscientist and

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

researcher, and a son, novelist and university Lecturer Emeritus Michael Petracca.

Fiction

Petracca had early success as a writer of short stories for magazines such as Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. Many of his stories featured a fictional Italian-American family, the Espositos, loosely based upon Petracca’s own family. Narrated by one of the Esposito children, Joey, these stories centered on themes of poverty, cultural alienation, and the joyful resiliency of family. Petracca used this same fictional family as the centerpiece for his first novel, ''Come Back to Sorrento'', published by Little, Brown and Company in the United States, and Victor Gollancz in London, in 1953.

Film

One of Petracca’s short prose pieces, "Something For the Birds

- a proto-environmentalist comedy focusing on the plight of the California condor - was purchased by

studios in the same year as the release of ''Come Back to Sorrento,'' and Petracca co-authored the screenplay with Alvin M. Joseph

The film version of "Something for the Birds" was directed by Robert Wise. Petracca was subsequently hired by Fox studios as a contract writer and for the next several years wrote and collaborated on numerous screenplays, including '' Seven Cities of Gold'

(1955) and '' The Proud Ones'

(1956). Subsequent to his tenure at Fox, Petracca continued writing and collaborating on screenplays through the end of the fifties, with such titles as '' The Jayhawkers!'' (1959) and '' The Proud Rebel'

(1958), starring

Alan Ladd Alan Walbridge Ladd (September 3, 1913 – January 29, 1964) was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake ...

, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger and John Carradine, and directed by Michael Curtiz. In the sixties, Petracca turned mainly to writing for television, although he did collaborate with novelist and long-time friend John Fante on a motion picture, '' The Reluctant Saint'' (1962), based upon the story of 17th century Saint Joseph of Cupertino, who, according to legend, had the gift of levitation (paranormal). That film starred

Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was an Austrian-born Swiss actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', h ...

in the title role and was directed by Edward Dmytryk.

Television

Prior to his death from cancer in 1963, Petracca wrote or collaborated on such television projects as '' Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond'' (1960), seven episodes of '' The Untouchables'', (1959-1961), '' The Asphalt Jungle'

(1961), '' Route 66 (TV series), Route 66'', '' Sam Benedict'

(1962), '' Rawhide'' (1962-1963), and '' The Richard Boone Show'' (1963).

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petracca, Joesph 1913 births 1963 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American male screenwriters American writers of Italian descent American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers Screenwriters from California 20th-century American screenwriters