Sidney Harmon (April 30, 1907 – February 29, 1988) was a movie producer and screenwriter. Harmon was nominated for the 1942

Academy Award for Best Story The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1956. This award can be a source of confusion for modern audiences, given its co-existence with the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenpl ...

for the movie '' The Talk of the Town''. He began his career working as a writer for radio and the theater during the 1930s. Harmon produced

Sidney Kingsley Sidney Kingsley (22 October 1906 – 20 March 1995) was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' Men in White'' in 1934. Life and career Kingsley was born Sidney Kirschner in New York. He studied at ...

's Pulitzer Prize-winning play '' Men In White''.

Biography

Born in

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

, New York in 1907, Harmon produced Broadway plays throughout the 1930s (1931-1937). Harmon was one of many members of the Group Theatre to become involved with movie production. He married artist Lily Harmon (née Perlmutter) in 1934; they divorced in 1940."Lily Harmon, 85, Portraitist and Book Illustrator,"
''New York Times'' (14 Feb. 1998). Retrieved 29 March 2017. He worked with movies from the 1940s to the 1960s. In 1959, he co-founded the Theatre Group at the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

with John Houseman and

Robert Ryan Robert Bushnell Ryan (November 11, 1909 – July 11, 1973) was an American actor and activist. Known for his portrayals of hardened cops and ruthless villains, Ryan performed for over three decades. He was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

. Harmon, with Ryan and others, initiated the Oakwood School in California in 1951. During retirement, Harmon was active in the cultural life of

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...

, California; he was the first director emeritus of the McCallum Theatre in

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has been ...

. The Desert Theatre League's Sidney Harmon Award honored members "in recognition of the advancement of theatrical excellence both on and off the stage". Harmon died in Rancho Mirage, California on February 29, 1988.

Career

Writer (1940s-1960s)

* ''The Talk of the Town'' (1942) (story) ... aka ''George Stevens' The Talk of the Town'' * '' Drums in the Deep South'' (1951) (screenplay) * ''Mara Maru'' (1952) (story) * ''Mutiny'' (1952) (writer) * ''

Man Crazy ''Man Crazy'' is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, published in 1997, that tells the story of a young girl's descent into self-harm, sexual abuse, cult brainwashing, and subsequent rescue. Plot summary Man Crazy is told from the point of view of a y ...

'' (1953) (writer) * '' Hand in Hand'' (1960) (story)

Producer (1950s-1960s)

* ''Man Crazy'' (1953) (producer) * ''

The Big Combo ''The Big Combo'' is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan and photographed by cinematographer John Alton, with music by David Raksin. The film stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian Don ...

'' (1955) (producer) * '' The Wild Party'' (1956) (producer) * ''

Men in War ''Men in War'' is a 1957 black and white American war film about the Korean War directed by Anthony Mann and starring Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray as the leaders of a small detachment of American soldiers cut off and desperately trying to rejoin th ...

'' (1957) (producer) * '' God's Little Acre'' (1958) (producer) * '' Anna Lucasta'' (1958) (producer) * '' Day of the Outlaw'' (1959) (producer) * '' The Thin Red Line'' (1964) (producer) * ''

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

'' (1965) (executive producer)

Miscellaneous Crew

* ''Men in War'' (1957) (presenter)

References

External links

* 1907 births 1988 deaths American film producers American male screenwriters 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-film-bio-stub