- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEdmund Preston Biden
- Height6′ 0½″ (1.84 m)
- Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti). He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI. Upon his return to Maison Desti, he invented a kissproof lipstick, Red-Red Rouge, in 1920. Shortly after his first marriage, his mother demanded that he return control of the company to her. Kicked out of Maison Desti, he turned to inventing. A tickertape machine, an intaglio photo-etching process, an automobile and an airplane were among his some of his commercially unsuccessful inventions. He began writing stories and, while recovering from an appendectomy in 1929, wrote his first play, "The Guinea Pig". In financial trouble over producing his plays, he moved to Hollywood in 1932 to make money. It wasn't long before he became frustrated by the lack of control he had over his work and wanted to direct the scripts he wrote. Paramount gave him this chance as part of a deal for selling his script for The Great McGinty (1940), at a cheap price. The film's success launched his career as writer/director and he had several hits over the next four years. That success emboldened him to become an independent filmmaker, but that did not last long--he had a string of commercial failures and acquired a reputation as an expensive perfectionist. He moved to France to make what turned out to be his last movie, The French, They Are a Funny Race (1955). He died at the Algonquin Hotel, New York City, in 1959.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Amy Harper <LookItUp1@aol.com>
- After 1944 he left Paramount to form a short lived partnership with Howard Hughes and his career suffered a precipitous decline with his three subsequent films being remote from the tastes at the time. During his long exile in the 50's his one realised European project was the bilingual 'Les Carnets de Major Thompson ('The FrenchThey Are a Funny Race') was unsuccessful. His reputation became one of a period director who ultimately lost contact with his audience. Even at the time of his greatest success , he was overshadowed by the emotions aroused by the war and the revolutionary 'Citizen Kane'. He was awarded an Oscar for his script of 'The Great McGinty' in 1940 and was nominated twice in 1944 for 'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' and 'Hail the Conquering Hero', both for writer. His directorial style depended more on the pacing of action and dialogue rather on visual texture and composition. He employed long, uncut single take scenes to establish the premises of his elaborate scripts but when he moved to slapstick he often cut to reactions before the action had finished. His instinct for timing comedy montage made his films the funniest of their era in terms of audience laughter. When he wanted to speed up the plot, he dispensed with dialogue and let the crisp movement and montage of silent farce fill the screen with hurling bodies.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpousesSandy Sturges(August 15, 1951 - August 6, 1959) (his death, 2 children)Louise Sargent(November 7, 1938 - December 1, 1948) (divorced, 1 child)Eleanor Post Close(April 12, 1930 - November 3, 1932) (annulled)Estelle de Wolfe Mudge(December 23, 1923 - July 1, 1928) (divorced)
- RelativesShannon Sturges(Grandchild)
- Witty, rapid-fire dialogue mixed with broad, screwball physical comedy
- A colorful supporting cast (often including the same actors) who give his films a bustling liveliness
- Wry explorations of the sexual politics of the time, with a typically strong, crafty female lead who often runs intellectual circles around a gullible, idealistic male lead
- His films often have a more subversive and dark undertone than other comedies of the day, at times suddenly veering into such risque themes as sexuality, poverty, corruption and murder
- He was working on his memoirs when he died suddenly, sick and alone, in a Manhattan hotel room. Ironically, to say the least, the working title of the book he left behind was "The Events Leading Up To My Death".
- When he was at his peak at Paramount in the mid-1940s he was not only the highest-paid screenwriter but one of the highest-paid people in America.
- He was a womanizer who struggled in most of his serious sexual relationships. Part of his aversion to monogamy was that his mother often carried on affairs with several different men and women at the same time while she was raising him.
- His mother, Mary d'Este, was for a time the lover of the notorious Aleister Crowley, whose dislike for the young Sturges was heartily reciprocated, and they each came in for harsh criticism in the other's memoirs. She was also the best friend of controversial dancer Isadora Duncan.
- Did not start writing until he was 30 years old.
- I did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay. It was probably harder for a regular director. He probably had to read the script the night before shooting started.
- [His "golden rule" for successful comedy] A pretty girl is better than a plain one / A leg is better than an arm / A bedroom is better than a living room / An arrival is better that a departure / A birth is better than a death / A chase is better than a chat / A dog is better than a landscape / A kitten is better than a dog / A baby is better than a kitten / A kiss is better than a baby / A pratfall is better than anything.
- You can't go around the theaters handing out cards saying, "It isn't my fault". You go on to the next one.
- The most incredible thing about my career is that I had one.
- [on Veronica Lake] She's one of the little people, like Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Freddie Bartholomew when he started, who take hold of an audience immediately. She's nothing much in real life--a quiet, rather timid little thing. But the screen transforms her, electrifies her and brings her to life.
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