GOODRICH, FRANCES (1890–1984) and HACKETT, ALBERT (1900–1995)

GOODRICH, FRANCES (1890–1984) and HACKETT, AL-BERT (1900–1995), U.S. writers. Born in Belleville, New Jersey, Goodrich attended Passaic High School. She graduated from Vassar College in 1912, and then spent a year at the New York School of Social Work. She first appeared on stage in Massachusetts in 1913, and her first Broadway show was Come Out of the Kitchen (1916). Hackett was born to professional actors Maurice Hackett and Florence (née Spreen) in New York. He first took to the stage at the age of six. The couple met while performing together in Denver, Colorado, in 1927. Goodrich and Hackett began writing plays together; their first hit, Up Pops the Devil, was adapted into a film in 1931. The couple married in 1931; the marriage was the third for Goodrich, the first for Hackett. After a string of less than successful screenplays for mgm, Goodrich and Hackett enjoyed their first box-office success adapting Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man (1934), which earned them their first of four career Oscar nominations. Goodrich and Hackett followed up with two more Thin Man films – After the Thin Man (1936) and Another Thin Man (1939). In 1941, the couple returned to Broadway with the long-running Mr. and Mrs. North. After the play's run, the couple returned to Hollywood to work for Paramount adapting Lady in the Dark (1944). Goodrich and Hackett were known for sophisticated comedy, but also worked on Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946). After The Pirate (1948), Easter Parade (1948), Father of the Bride (1950) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), the couple once again took an uncharacteristic turn to drama with a stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank (1956), which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and two Tony Awards, and which was adapted to film in 1959. Goodrich and Hackett's final collaboration was Five Finger Exercise (1962).

[Adam Wills (2^nd ed.)]