
Frances Marion
Personal Info
Known for
Writing
Gender
Female
Birthday
1888-11-18
Day of Death
1973-05-12 (84 years old)
Place of Birth
San Francisco, California, USA
Frances Marion
Biography
Frances Marion (November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos. She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards.
Born Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco, California, she worked as a journalist and served overseas as a combat correspondent during World War I. On her return home, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired as a writing assistant, an actress and general assistant by "Lois Weber Productions", a film company owned and operated by pioneer female film director Lois Weber.She has a face as an actor, but she preferred a work that she isn't in the camera. She learned how to write a scenario from Weber. Marion wrote a story for a movie for her, but it burned before it was released.
As "Frances Marion", she wrote many scripts for actress/filmmaker Mary Pickford, including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and The Poor Little Rich Girl, as well as scripts for numerous other successful films of the 1920s and 1930s.Marion went to New York for her job, and her husband decline to live with her and divorced. She became the first female to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1930 for the film The Big House, she received the Academy Award for Best Story for The Champ in 1932, both featuring Wallace Beery, and co-wrote Min and Bill starring her friend Marie Dressler and Beery in 1930. She was credited with writing 300 scripts and over 130 produced films. She directed and occasionally appeared in some of Mary Pickford's early movies.
For many years she was under contract to MGM Studios, but, independently wealthy, she left Hollywood in 1946 to devote more time to writing stage plays and novels.
Frances Marion published a memoir Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood in 1972. Marion died the following year of a ruptured aneurysm in Los Angeles.
Acting
(2016)
The Women Who Run Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
(2000)
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
(1915)
A Girl of Yesterday
as Rosanna Danford
Crew
(1989)
Dinner at Eight
Writer
(1979)
The Champ
Story, Original Story
(1948)
The Pirate
Additional Writing
(1945)
Molly and Me
Novel
(1940)
Green Hell
Screenplay, Original Story
(1937)
Love from a Stranger
Screenplay, Adaptation
(1937)
Knight Without Armour
Adaptation, Writer
(1936)
Camille
Screenplay
(1936)
Riffraff
Screenplay, Story
(1933)
(1933)
Secrets
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1933)
Dinner at Eight
Screenplay
(1933)
Hold Your Man
Writer
(1932)
Emma
Story
(1932)
Blondie of the Follies
Screenplay, Story
(1932)
Cynara
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1931)
The Secret Six
Writer
(1931)
The Champ
Writer, Story
(1931)
The Big House
Writer
(1930)
The Big House
Dialogue, Story, Writer
(1930)
The Big House
Writer
(1930)
Anna Christie
Screenplay
(1930)
Good News
Scenario Writer, Screenplay
(1930)
Let Us Be Gay
Dialogue, Writer
(1930)
Anna Christie
Adaptation
(1930)
The Rogue Song
Writer
(1930)
Min and Bill
Writer
(1929)
Their Own Desire
Screenplay
(1928)
The Wind
Screenplay
(1928)
The Masks of the Devil
Writer
(1928)
The Awakening
Story
(1928)
Bringing Up Father
Writer
(1928)
The Sunset Legion
Story, Scenario Writer
(1927)
The Scarlet Letter
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1927)
Love
Writer
(1927)
The Red Mill
Scenario Writer, Adaptation
(1927)
Mr. Wu
Writer
(1927)
Madame Pompadour
Writer
(1927)
(1927)
Jesse James
Screenplay, Story
(1927)
Don Mike
Story
(1926)
The Son of the Sheik
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1926)
(1926)
Partners Again
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1926)
The First Year
Writer
(1926)
Paris at Midnight
Writer
(1926)
The Tough Guy
Story
(1926)
(1926)
The Two-Gun Man
Co-Writer
(1925)
A Thief in Paradise
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1925)
Stella Dallas
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1925)
Lightnin'
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1925)
Zander the Great
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1925)
The Lady
Writer
(1925)
Lazybones
Scenario Writer, Screenplay
(1925)
Thank You
Screenplay
(1925)
The Dark Angel
Writer
(1925)
His Supreme Moment
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1925)
Graustark
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1925)
Ridin' the Wind
Writer
(1924)
The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln
Story, Screenplay
(1924)
Sundown
Writer
(1924)
Secrets
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1924)
Cytherea
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1924)
(1924)
Through the Dark
Writer
(1924)
Tarnish
Screenplay
(1923)
The Eagle's Talons
Writer
(1923)
The Toll of the Sea
Story, Writer
(1923)
Potash and Perlmutter
Writer
(1923)
The Famous Mrs. Fair
Screenplay
(1923)
The Song of Love
Director, Adaptation, Screenplay
(1923)
Dulcy
Writer
(1923)
Within the Law
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1923)
The Nth Commandment
Producer, Writer
(1923)
The Voice from the Minaret
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1923)
The French Doll
Writer, Scenario Writer
(1923)
The Love Piker
Scenario Writer
(1922)
The Primitive Lover
Writer
(1922)
Back Pay
Writer
(1922)
The Eternal Flame
Writer
(1922)
Sonny
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1922)
East Is West
Writer
(1922)
Sherlock Brown
Writer
(1921)
The Love Light
Director, Writer
(1921)
Just Around the Corner
Director, Writer
(1921)
Straight Is the Way
Writer
(1920)
The World and His Wife
Screenplay
(1920)
Go and Get It
Scenario Writer
(1920)
Humoresque
Writer
(1920)
The Restless Sex
Writer
(1920)
Pollyanna
Adaptation, Screenplay
(1920)
The Flapper
Screenplay, Story
(1919)
The Misleading Widow
Writer
(1919)
Anne of Green Gables
Writer
(1919)
The Cinema Murder
Scenario Writer, Screenplay
(1919)
Captain Kidd, Jr.
Writer
(1919)
The Dark Star
Writer
(1918)
Stella Maris
Writer
(1918)
M'Liss
Writer
(1918)
How Could You, Jean?
Screenplay
(1918)
The City of Dim Faces
Screenplay
(1918)
Johanna Enlists
Writer
(1918)
(1918)
He Comes Up Smiling
Writer
(1918)
The Temple Of Dusk
Writer
(1918)
The Goat
Screenplay, Story
(1917)
The Poor Little Rich Girl
Scenario Writer, Writer
(1917)
(1917)
The Web of Desire
Writer
(1917)
Tillie Wakes Up
Writer
(1917)
The Social Leper
Writer
(1917)
A Square Deal
Writer
(1917)
Forget-Me-Not
Writer
(1917)
A Little Princess
Writer
(1917)
On Dangerous Ground
Writer
(1917)
The Amazons
Writer
(1917)
A Girl's Folly
Writer
(1917)
The Stolen Paradise
Writer
(1917)
A Woman Alone
Writer
(1917)
Beloved Adventuress
Screenplay, Story
(1917)
Darkest Russia
Writer
(1917)
The Crimson Dove
Writer
(1917)
The Divorce Game
Writer
(1916)
The Heart of a Hero
Writer
(1916)
The Gilded Cage
Writer
(1916)
The Hidden Scar
Writer
(1916)
A Woman's Way
Writer
(1916)
The Revolt
Writer
(1916)
The Rise of Susan
Writer
(1916)
A Circus Romance
Story
(1916)
The Foundling
Writer
(1916)
The Crucial Test
Writer
(1916)
All Man
Writer
(1916)
The Summer Girl
Writer
(1915)
A Sister's Burden
Writer
(1915)
(1915)
Fanchon, the Cricket
Writer
(1915)
Rags
Writer
(1915)
Camille
Screenplay
(1915)
Esmeralda
Writer
(1912)
The New York Hat
Writer