Background
Lewis was born in New York City, the son of Hyman and Clara Lewis, Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants.
journalist novelist screenwriter
Lewis was born in New York City, the son of Hyman and Clara Lewis, Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants.
He lived in China, working as a reporter on the Shanghai Evening Post in 1930 and on the China Press in 1931 and 1932. They had two children, Michael and Jane. He worked as a reporter for the New York Journal, but quit to work as an independent writer
Although he sold several stories to Esquire (magazine), he was forced to declare bankruptcy by the time he sold his first novel, Gentleman Overboard, to the Viking Press in 1937.
He moved to Hollywood and worked as a scenario writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1937. He contributed to the screenplay for the 1939 film, Fisherman"s Wharf and wrote the original story for Escape to Paradise.
He returned to New York City in 1939 and worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. He returned to reporting, joining the news staff of the New York Herald Tribune in 1942.
He returned to Hollywood in 1942 after 20th Century Fox bought the film rights to his story, "Two-Faced Qulligan" for $25,000.
The story was originally published in. lieutenant was filmed in 1945 as Two-Faced Quilligan. His story "Doctorate-Day in Las Vegas" was made into the movie Lady Luck (1946), and he contributed to the screenplay for Free for All (1949), which was based on his story, "Patent Applied Foreign"
Capra in turn sold it to Roy Delegate Ruth, who filmed it in 1947 as lieutenant Happened on Fifth Avenue.
Lewis suffered a nervous breakdown in 1948 and was unable to work for a year after.
He returned to New York in 1949 and was working as a contributing editor of Time magazine when he died of a heart attack.