Born May 18, 1912 in Philadelphia, PA to Russian Jewish immigrants Hyman and Esther Sax, Reuben Sax grew up poor. He studied journalism at Temple University for two years from 1929-1931 before discovering that his parents were going into debt paying for his education at which time he quit school and rode the freight trains seeking work but eventually returned to Philadelphia where he became a reporter as Richard Brooks to which he legally changed his name in 1943.

Brooks wrote and directed plays for the theatre in the late 1930s and early 1940s, marrying actress Jean Brooks in 1941.  She became an overnight sensation in 1943’s The 7th Victim by which time the marriage had broken up. He joined the marines during World War II but never served overseas, working instead for film units in Quantico, VA and Camp Pendleton, CA. where he honed his craft and wrote the novel The Brick Foxhole which became the 1947 film, Crossfire. He married second wife Harriette Levin in 1946.

Working for Universal, and then independent producer Mark Hellinger after the war, he wrote the scripts for The Killers and Brute Force, both starring Burt Lancaster. He then went to work for Warner Bros. where he co-wrote 1948’s Key Largo with John Huston. The film starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, and Lionel Barrymore was one of the year’s biggest hits.

A chance meeting with Cary Grant at a racetrack resulted in Brooks’ first directorial job on 1950’s Crisis starring Grant and José Ferrer.

Brooks’ most successful early film as director was 1954’s glossy tearjerker, The Last Time I Saw Paris starring Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, and Walter Pidgeon.  His critical breakthrough came with 1955’s Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, followed by such hits as 1956’s The Catered Affair with Bette Davis and Debbie Reynolds, 1957’s Something of Value with Rock Hudson and Poitier, and 1958’s The Brothers Karamzov with Yul Brynner and Maria Schell and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.

With Oscar nominations for Blackboard Jungle and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof under his belt, he won an Oscar for his screenplay of 1960’s Elmer Gantry with Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons. His marriage to Levin having ended in 1957, he married  Simmons in November 1960 following her divorce from Stewart Granger. He helped raise Simmons’ daughter Tracy Granger (named after godfather Spencer Tracy) and the daughter they had together, Kate Brooks (named after godmother Katharine Hepburn).

Passed over by Oscar for 1962’s Sweet Bird of Youth and 1965’s Lord Jim, nominations were again his for 1966’s The Professionals and 1967’s In Cold Blood. In 1969, he directed Simmons in The Happy Ending, becoming only the third director to have directed their wives to an Oscar nomination following Paul Czinner’s direction of Elizabeth Bergner in 1935’s Escape Me Never and Paul Newman’s direction of Joanne Woodward in 1968’s Rachel, Rachel.

Brooks wrote and directed his last critically acclaimed film, Looking for Mr. Goodbar in 1977, the year he and Simmons separated. They would divorce in 1980. He would write and direct just two more films, 1982’s Wrong Is Right and 1985’s Fever Pitch, both of which were critical and commercial failures.

Richard Brooks died of heart failure on March 11, 1992 at the age of 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)

This was both the first major film to deal with juvenile delinquency and the first to use a pre-released record, “Rock Around the Clock”, as its theme song. Glenn Ford stars as an idealistic young schoolteacher who can’t seem to break through to the students who want to learn in a class that is terrorized by a few bullies. Sidney Poitier as a smart kid playing dumb and Vic Morrow as an incorrigible one, may have been  too old for their parts, but played them well. Richard Kiley is also outstanding as a teacher who is bullied into quitting. Brooks received his first of eight Oscar nominations for his screenplay based on Evan Hunter’s novel.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958)

Brooks received his second and third Oscar nominations for adapting Tennessee Williams’ play and as well as his first for directing. Elizabeth Taylor earned her second consecutive Oscar nomination for playing the hot wife, Maggie the Cat, and Paul Newman received his first for playing the cold husband, Brick. Burl Ives recreated his Broadway role as Big Daddy but was nominated for and won the Oscar for a similar role in The Big Country arguably because his star billing in this prevented a supporting actor nomination for this. Lee J. Cobb received an Oscar nomination for Brooks’ The Brothers Karamazov this year as well.

ELMER GANTRY (1960)

Brooks’ adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s 1920s novel won him his only Oscar. Curiously, he was not nominated for his direction even though the film was nominated for Best Picture. Burt Lancaster as the title character, a phony evangelist, won Best Actor and Shirley Jones as a preacher’s daughter turned prostitute won a Supporting Actress Oscar. Jean Simmons, who married Brooks in November 1960, was shockingly ignored for a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of a true believer evangelist. He would later direct her to a nomination for 1969’s The Happy Ending in which Shirley Jones once again plays the bad girl.

IN COLD BLOOD (1967)

The most critically acclaimed film of Brooks’ career earned him Oscar nominations for both his screenplay and direction of Truman Capote’s documentary novel. Because Capote had a financial stake in the film, he was precluded from saying anything negative about Brooks’ adaptation. He agreed with Brooks’ cutting the murder trial, which took up fifty pages in the book, down to just four minutes on screen, but he privately disapproved of Brooks’ eliminating much of the background on the murder victims to concentrate on the killers, brilliantly played by former child star Robert Blake and newcomer Scott Wilson.

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (1977)

Brooks’ last acclaimed screenplay was for his adaptation of Judith Rossner’s best-selling novel based on a real life 1973 murder. We know from the beginning that Diane Keaton’s promiscuous schoolteacher will be murdered, but we don’t know why. Keaton, who would win an Oscar for the same year’s Annie Hall gives an extraordinary performance, arguably the best of her career in this controversial film. Brooks also gets strong performances from Oscar nominated Tuesday Weld as Keaton’s  sister as well as Richard Kiley as her father and William Atherton, Richard Gere, and Tom Berenger as her most interesting lovers.

RICHARD BROOKS AND OSCAR

Blackboard Jungle (1955) nominated – Best Adapted Screenplay

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) – nominated – Best Adapted Screenplay

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) – nominated – Best Director

Elmer Gantry (1960) – – Oscar – – Best Adapted Screenplay

The Professionals (1966) – nominated – Best Adapted Screenplay

The Professionals (1966) – nominated – Best Director

In Cold Blood (1967) – nominated – Best Adapted Screenplay

In Cold Blood (1967) – nominated – Best Director