W. R. Burnett

His other notable film credits included Scarface (1932), This Gun for Hire (1942), Vendetta (1950), and The Great Escape (1963).

• Name — W. R. Burnett • Birth Name — William Riley Burnett • Born — 25 November 1899 • Birthplace — Springfield, Ohio, U.S. • Died — 25 April 1982 • Place of death — Santa Monica, California, U.S. • Years Active — 1931–1972 • Children — 2 • Resting Place — Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) • Notable Works — * Little Caesar • High Sierra • The Asphalt Jungle • Wake Island • The Great Escape

Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio, and attended Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio. He left his civil service job in Springfield to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over 100 short stories and five novels, all unpublished.

In Chicago, Burnett found a job as a night clerk in the Northmere Hotel. His experiences with the people at the hotel, including gangsters, inspired Little Caesar (novel 1929, film 1931). The novel's overnight success landed him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. Little Caesar became a classic movie, produced by First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) and starring then little known Edward G. Robinson. Burnett was hired by Howard Hughes to write a draft of Scarface although director Howard Hawks disliked it and the script was rewritten by established playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht. He won the 1930 O. Henry Award for his short story "Dressing-Up", published in Harper's in November 1929. In 1980, he won the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. Burnett published a novel or more a year and turned most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain, who all wrote in the hardboiled genre of fiction. He often contrasted the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for. He portrayed characters who, for one reason or another, fell into a life of crime and were unable to climb out. They typically get one last shot at salvation but the oppressive system closes in and denies redemption.

In later years, with his vision declining, he stopped writing and turned to promoting his earlier work. On his death in 1982, in Santa Monica, California, Burnett was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

• Little Caesar (The Dial Press - 1929) - as 'Lincoln MacVeagh' • Iron Man (The Dial Press - 1930) - as 'Lincoln MacVeagh' • Saint Johnson (The Dial Press - 1930) - as 'Lincoln MacVeagh' • The Silver Eagle (The Dial Press - 1931) - as 'Lincoln MacVeagh' • The Beast of the City (Grosset & Dunlap - 1932) [not properly a Burnett novel; credit on the book reads "novelized by Jack Lait, from the screen story by W.R. Burnett"; the book was published concurrently with the release of the M-G-M film, circa March 1932] • The Giant Swing (Harper - 1932) • Dark Hazard (Harper - 1933) • Goodbye to the Past: Scenes from the Life of William Meadows (Harper - 1934) • The Goodhues of Sinking Creek (Harper - 1934) • Dr. Socrates (O'Bryan House Publishing LLC - 2007) [Originally serialized in Colliers Weekly Magazine in 1935] • King Cole (Harper - 1936) • The Dark Command: A Kansas Iliad (Knopf - 1938) • High Sierra (Knopf - 1941) • The Quick Brown Fox (Knopf - 1943) • Nobody Lives Forever (Knopf - 1943) • Tomorrow's Another Day (Knopf - 1946) • Romelle (Knopf - 1947) • The Asphalt Jungle (Knopf - 1949) • Stretch Dawson (Gold Medal - 1950) - The film Yellow Sky (1948) was based on an unpublished early version of the novel • Little Men, Big World (Knopf - 1952) • Adobe Walls: A Novel of the Last Apache Rising (Knopf - 1953) • Vanity Row (Knopf - 1952) • Big Stan (Gold Medal - 1953) - as "John Monahan" • Captain Lightfoot (Knopf - 1954) • It's Always Four O'Clock (Random House - 1956) - as "James Updyke" • Pale Moon (Knopf - 1956) • Underdog (Knopf - 1957) • Bitter Ground (Knopf - 1958) • Mi Amigo: A Novel of the Southwest (Knopf - 1959) • Conant (Popular Library - 1961) • Round the Clock at Volari's (Gold Medal - 1961) • The Goldseekers (Doubleday - 1962) • The Widow Barony (Macdonald - 1962) • The Abilene Samson (Pocket Books - 1963) • Sergeants 3 (Pocket Books - 1963) • The Roar of the Crowd: Conversations with an Ex-Big-Leaguer (C.N. Potter - 1964) • The Winning of Mickey Free (Bantam Pathfinder - 1965) • The Cool Man (Gold Medal - 1968) • Good-bye, Chicago: 1928: End of an Era (St. Martin's - 1981)

• "Round Trip" (1929) • "Dressing-Up" (1930) • "Traveling Light" (1935) • "Vanishing Act" (1955)

• Year — Title — Notes • 1955 — Screen Directors Playhouse — Episode: "Rookie of the Year" • 1956 — Studio 57 — Episode: "Deadline" • 1959 — 77 Sunset Strip — Episode: "Thanks for Tomorrow" • 1960 — The Untouchables — Episode: "The Big Squeeze" • Naked City — Episode: "Debt of Honor" • 1961 — The Asphalt Jungle — Episode: "The Lady and the Lawyer" • 1965 — The Legend of Jesse James — Episode: "Manhunt" • 1967 — Off to See the Wizard — Episode: "Hell Cats" • The Virginian — Episode: "The Fortress" • 1968 — Bonanza — Episode: "The Stronghold"

• Year — Title — Source material — Ref. • 1961 — The Asphalt Jungle — The Asphalt Jungle

• Year — Title — Director — Notes — Ref. • 1931 — The Finger Points — John Francis Dillon • 1932 — The Beast of the City — Charles Brabin • Scarface — Howard Hawks • 1940 — The Westerner — William Wyler — Uncredited • 1941 — The Get-Away — Edward Buzzell • High Sierra — Raoul Walsh — Based on his 1940 novel • 1942 — This Gun for Hire — Frank Tuttle • Wake Island — John Farrow • 1943 — Crash Dive — Archie Mayo • Action in the North Atlantic — Lloyd Bacon • Background to Danger — Raoul Walsh • 1945 — San Antonio — David Butler • 1946 — Nobody Lives Forever — Jean Negulesco — Based on his 1943 novel • The Man I Love — Raoul Walsh — Uncredited • 1948 — Belle Starr's Daughter — Lesley Selander • 1950 — Vendetta — Mel Ferrer • 1951 — The Racket — John Cromwell • 1954 — Dangerous Mission — Louis King • Night People — Nunnally Johnson — Uncredited • 1955 — Captain Lightfoot — Douglas Sirk — Based on his 1954 novel • Illegal — Lewis Allen • 1957 — Accused of Murder — Joseph Kane — Based on his 1952 novel Vanity Row • 1959 — The Hangman — Michael Curtiz — Uncredited • 1960 — September Storm — Byron Haskin • 1961 — The Lawbreakers — Joseph M. Newman • 1962 — Sergeants Three — John Sturges • 1963 — The Great Escape • Four for Texas — Robert Aldrich — Uncredited • 1968 — Ice Station Zebra — John Sturges — Uncredited • 1969 — Stiletto — Bernard L. Kowalski — Uncredited

• Year — Title — Source material — Ref. • 1930 — Little Caesar — Little Caesar • 1931 — Iron Man — Iron Man • 1932 — Law and Order — Saint Johnson • 1934 — Dark Hazard — Dark Hazard • 1935 — The Whole Town's Talking — "Jail Breaker" • Dr. Socrates — "Dr. Socrates" • 1936 — 36 Hours to Kill — "Across the Aisle" • 1937 — Wine, Women and Horses — Dark Hazard • Wild West Days — Saint Johnson • Some Blondes Are Dangerous — Iron Man • 1939 — King of the Underworld — "Dr. Socrates" • 1940 — Dark Command — The Dark Command: A Kansas Iliad • Law and Order — Saint Johnson • 1941 — High Sierra — High Sierra • Dance Hall — The Giant Swing • 1942 — Bullet Scars — "Dr. Socrates" • 1946 — Nobody Lives Forever — Nobody Lives Forever • 1948 — Yellow Sky — Stretch Dawson • 1950 — Colorado Territory — High Sierra • The Asphalt Jungle — The Asphalt Jungle • 1951 — Iron Man — Iron Man • 1953 — Law and Order — Saint Johnson • Arrowhead — Adobe Walls • 1955 — Captain Lightfoot — Captain Lightfoot • 1956 — I Died a Thousand Times — High Sierra • 1957 — Accused of Murder — Vanity Row • 1958 — The Badlanders — The Asphalt Jungle • 1963 — Cairo — The Asphalt Jungle • 1967 — The Jackals — Stretch Dawson • 1972 — Cool Breeze — The Asphalt Jungle