George Axelrod (June 9, 1922 – June 21, 2003) was an American screenwriter, producer, playwright and film director, best known for his play, The Seven Year Itch (1952), which was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's and also adapted Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
June 9, 1922, New York City, New York, United States
Died
June 21, 2003, Los Angeles, California, United States
Place Of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Profession
Writer, Producer, Director
Spouse
Joan Stanton (m. 1954–2001), Gloria Washburn (m. 1942–1954)
Children
Nina Axelrod, Steven Gould Axelrod, Peter Axelrod
Star Sign
Gemini
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Quote
1
[on directing for the first time]: I was in heaven! If I've been a good boy, when I die, they'll give me a big soundstage up there, with all the gunk to play with.
2
[on Richard Quine]: He was sweet and highly talented, but totally insane, which made him exactly my kind of person.
3
[on the screenplay for "The Manchurian Candidate"]: It breaks every single known rule. It's got dream sequences, flashbacks, narration out of nowhere. When we got in trouble, it just had a voice explaining stuff. Everything in the world that you're told not to do. But that was part of its genetic code, the secret of the crossword puzzle.
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Fact
1
Served in the Army Signals Corps during World War II.
2
Former actor and stage manager. By 1952, had written over 400 scripts for radio and TV shows. Under contract as writer to 20th Century Fox, 1955-1956, and 1965-1968.
3
Axelrod started out his career writing radio and TV scripts, "about four hundred of them" by his own estimate in 1955.
4
Axelrod got the title for his play "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" from a movie magazine headline, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hudson?" For legal reasons, the surname in the play title was changed to Hunter.
5
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 23-25. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
$400,000
