Jules Furthman
Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Pauline Kael once wrote that Furthman "has written about half of the most entertaining movies to come out of Hollywood (Ben Hecht wrote most of the other half)."
Also recorded as Stephen Fox · Jules G. Furthman
Jules Furthman

Samuel V. Grand / Producers Distributing Corporation · The Film Daily (Jul. - Dec. 1923) on the Internet Archive · Public domain
- Name
- Jules Furthman
- Born
- 5 March 1888
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
- Died
- 22 September 1966
- Place of death
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
- Occupation
- Screenwriter, director and producer
- Spouse
- Sybil Seely (m. 1920)
- Nationality
- United States
- Known for
- Mutiny on the Bounty · Rio Bravo · Nightmare Alley · The Big Sleep
- Languages
- English
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wikidata · Q704053 · wikipedia · Jules Furthman
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Jules Furthman • Born — 5 March 1888 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 22 September 1966 • Place of death — Oxford, Oxfordshire, England • Occupation — Screenwriter, director and producer • Years Active — 1915–1959 • Spouse — Sybil Seely (m. 1920) • Children — 1 • Resting Place — Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Biography
Biography
Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he wrote under the pen name "Stephen Fox" as he thought Furthman sounded too German. He wrote screenplays for a number of important or popular films, including The Docks of New York (1928), Thunderbolt (1929), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Bombshell (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Come and Get It (1936), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Nightmare Alley (1947). He wrote credited screenplays for eight films directed by Josef von Sternberg and an equal number for Howard Hawks. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Mutiny on the Bounty. In 1920, he married the actress Sybil Seely, who played in five films directed by Buster Keaton. She and Furthman had a son in 1921, and she retired from acting in 1922. They remained together until his death. Furthman died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1966 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. His remains were brought home and interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
List of screenplays
List of screenplays
• Steady Company (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman) • Bound on the Wheel (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman) • Chasing the Limited (1915) (scenario) • Mountain Justice (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman) • A Fiery Introduction (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman) • Quits (1915) (as Julius G. Furthman) • The Little Blonde in Black (1915) • High Play (1917) (scenario) (as Jules Grinnell Furthmann) • The Frame-Up (1917) • The Shackles of Truth (1917) (story) (as Julius Grinnell Furthman) • The Masked Heart (1917) (story) (as Julius Grinnell Furthmann) • Souls in Pawn (1917) (story) • The Mantle of Charity (1918) (as Stephen Fox) • A Camouflage Kiss (1918) (as Stephen Fox) • Hearts or Diamonds? (1918) • Up Romance Road (1918) (as Stephen Fox) • A Japanese Nightingale (1918) • Hobbs in a Hurry (1918) (scenario) (as Stephen Fox) • All the World to Nothing (1918) (as Stephen Fox) • Wives and Other Wives (1918) (as Stephen Fox) • When a Man Rides Alone (1919) (as Stephen Fox) • Where the West Begins (1919) • Brass Buttons (1919) (as Stephen Fox) • Some Liar (1919) (scenario) (as Stephen Fox) • A Sporting Chance (1919) (as Stephen Fox) • This Hero Stuff (1919) (story) (as Stephen Fox) • Six Feet Four (1919) (as Stephen Fox) • Victory (1919) (as Stephen Fox) • The Lincoln Highwayman (1919) (adaptation) • The Beloved Cheater (1919) (story) (as Steven Fox) • Would You Forgive? (1920) • The Valley of Tomorrow (1920) (as Stephen Fox) • Treasure Island (1920) (as Stephen Fox) • Leave It to Me (1920) (scenario) • Twins of Suffering Creek (1920) (scenario) • A Sister to Salome (1920) • The Great Redeemer (1920) (adaptation) • The White Circle (1920) • The Man Who Dared (1920) (as Julius G. Furthman) • The Skywayman (1920) • The Texan (1920) (scenario) • The Iron Rider (1920) (scenario) • The Land of Jazz (1920) • High Gear Jeffrey (1921) • The Cheater Reformed (1921) • The Big Punch (1921) • The Blushing Bride (1921) • Colorado Pluck (1921) • Singing River (1921) • The Last Trail (1921) • The Roof Tree (1921) • Pawn Ticket 210 (1922) • Gleam O'Dawn (1922) • The Ragged Heiress (1922) • Arabian Love (1922) • The Yellow Stain (1922) • Strange Idols (1922) • Calvert's Valley (1922) • The Love Gambler (1922) • A California Romance (1922) • Lovebound (1923) • St. Elmo (1923) • North of Hudson Bay (1923) • The Acquittal (1923) • Condemned (1923) • Try and Get It (1924) (adaptation) • Call of the Mate (1924) • Romola (1924) (titles) • Sackcloth and Scarlet (1925) • Any Woman (1925) • Before Midnight (1925) • Big Pal (1925) • The Wise Guy (1926) • You'd Be Surprised (1926) • Hotel Imperial (1927) • The Love Wager (1927) • Casey at the Bat (1927) • Fashions for Women (1927) • The Way of All Flesh (1927) • Barbed Wire (1927) • The City Gone Wild (1927) • Abie's Irish Rose (1928) • The Drag Net (1928) • The Docks of New York (1928) • The Case of Lena Smith (1929) • Thunderbolt (1929) (story) • New York Nights (1929) (adaptation) • For the Defense (1930) (story) • Common Clay (1930) • Renegades (1930) (adaptation) • Morocco (1930) (adaptation) • Body and Soul (1931) • Cuerpo y alma (1931) • Merely Mary Ann (1931) • The Yellow Ticket (1931) • Over the Hill (1931) • Shanghai Express (1932) • Blonde Venus (1932) (story) (uncredited) • Bombshell (1933) • China Seas (1935) • Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) • Come and Get It (1936) • Spawn of the North (1938) • Only Angels Have Wings (1939) • Zaza (1939) (uncredited) • The Way of All Flesh (1940) (story) • The Shanghai Gesture (1941) • The Outlaw (1943) • To Have and Have Not (1944) • The Big Sleep (1946) • Moss Rose (1947) • Nightmare Alley (1947) • Pretty Baby (1950) (story) • Peking Express (1951) • Jet Pilot (1957) • Rio Bravo (1959)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1888
Jules Furthman born at Chicago.
1966
Jules Furthman died at Oxford.
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Chicago.
Birth place
Oxford.
Death place
Legacy
On the UK television program Scene By Scene, host Mark Cousins said, "Furthman wrote some of your best lines and he also wrote for her (Marlene Dietrich), those sort of, sexy and ambiguous lines." Lauren Bacall replied, "He did? Well, that I didn't know. I asked Howard Hawks once, why he used Furthman; as he didn't write the entire screenplay. And he (Hawks) said, 'If there are five ways to play a scene, he (Furthman) will write a sixth way.' And of course, that makes perfect sense and that's exactly what Furthman did. He always came around the back way and suddenly there was a little surprise there."
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Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Jules Furthman, revision 1372552357 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Kael, Pauline. The Frightening Power of Bonnie and Clyde. The New Yorker. October 13, 1967.
- 2.Thomson, David (May 6, 2014). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition. Knopf. p. 384. .
- 3.Thomson, David (May 6, 2014). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition. Knopf. pp. 384, 385. .
- 4.Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). The 8th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners.
- 5.Walker, Brent E. Mack Sennett's Fun Factory. Volume 2. McFarland. 551. 2013. 9780786477111.
- 6.Aig, Dennis Ira. Jules Furthman and the popular aesthetics of screenwriting. The Ohio State University. 1983.
- 7.Cousins, Mark. Scene by Scene: Film Actors and Directors Discuss Their Work. Laurence King. 2002. 9781856692878.
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He also worked under the name Stephen Fox. The authorities additionally record the headings Stephen Fox and Jules G. His recorded language was English. He married Sybil Seely. Recorded as screenwriter, journalist, writer and film director.
Identity and origins
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 28 August 2026.
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