Background

Hackett was born on February 16, 1900, in New York City, New York, United States to the family of actors Florence Hackett (née Hart) and Maurice Hackett.

Education

Albert Hackett attended Professional Children's School and started out as a child actor, appearing on stage and in films.

Career

Albert Hackett collaborated with his first wife, Frances Goodrich, on more than 30 screenplays, many of them comedies and musicals, before the couple won a Pulitzer Prize for drama for The Diary of Anne Frank, a moving adaptation of the best-selling book Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Their play opened on Broadway in 1955 and became an overnight sensation, and their screenplay was used for the 1959 film. Soon after the two were married in 1931, they moved to Hollywood. They made their debut as screenwriters with The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933) and followed that with such hits as The Thin Man (1934) and two of its five sequels, Lady in the Dark (1944), The Virginian and It’s a Wonderful Life, both in 1946, Easter Parade (1948), In the Good Old Summertime (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), The Long, Long Trailer (1954), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Their last offering was in 1962.

Hackett died of pneumonia on March 16, 1995, in New York City, New York, United States.

Achievements

• The Hacketts were one of the most successful screenwriting partnerships in Hollywood history. From the time they got married in 1931, until their retirement in 1962, they turned out in excess of 30 scripts, mostly comedies and musicals. Their movies won a number of prestigious awards and some of them became hieratical.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Diary of Anne Frank

    (A two-act play based on the diary of a Jewish girl who di...)

    1955
  • The Great Big Doorstep: A Comedy in Three Acts 1943
  • It's a Wonderful Life 1946
  • The Thin Man 1934
  • Father of the Bride 1991

• movie

  • Five Finger Exercise

    (The hit Broadway drama by Peter Shaffer (Amadeus) is vivi...)

    1962
  • It's A Wonderful Life

    (An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrate...)

    1946
  • Another Thin Man

    (Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths ...)

    1939
  • The Long, Long Trailer

    (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz live slaphappily ever after a...)

    1954
  • Ah, Wilderness! 1935
  • Summer Holiday 1948
  • The Diary of Anne Frank 1956
  • Father of the Bride 1950
  • After the Thin Man 1936
  • Father's Little Dividend 1951
  • Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954

Membership

• Lubin Stock Company , United States

• Denver Stock Company , United States

  1927

Connections

Albert Hackett married an actress and writer Frances Goodrich on February 7, 1931. She died in 1984. In 1985 he married an actress and dancer Gisella Svetlik.

Father:

Maurice Hackett

Mother:

Florence Hackett (née Hart)

step-father:

Arthur Vaughan Johnson

Brother:

Raymond Hackett

Sister:

Jeannine Hackett

sister-in-law:

Myra Hampton

sister-in-law:

Blanche Sweet

Wife:

Frances Goodrich

Wife:

Gisella Svetlik

colleague:

Vincente Minnelli

colleague:

Frank Capra

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998