Former journalist and playwright, active on and off-Broadway from the mid-1920's. Moved to Hollywood as a press agent for Samuel Goldwyn and then became a title writer for De Mille and Pathe. Wrote his first screenplays from 1929. He was under contract at Paramount from 1932 to 1938, associated with Ernst Lubitsch on a couple of noted comedies, particularly To Be or Not to Be (1942).
Was mentioned by name in Budd Schulberg's 1950 novel about Hollywood, "The Disenchanted," as well as Schlberg's non-fiction work, "The Four Seasons of Success.".