Everett Freeman, 79, Prolific Screenwriter (original) (raw)
Advertisement
Jan. 26, 1991
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
January 26, 1991
,
Section 1, Page
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Everett Freeman, a screenwriter and producer whose films include "Marjorie Morningstar," "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man," died Thursday at his home. He was 79 years old and lived in Westwood, Calif.
He died of kidney failure, said his daughter, Elizabeth Freeman Taubman.
More than three dozen movies written, adapted or produced by Mr. Freeman have been seen since the 1935 screening of "$1,000 a Minute," for which he wrote the original story. He produced "Jim Thorpe -- All American," "Sunday in New York" and "The Glass Bottom Boat," among others. He wrote screenplays for a score of films, including, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which starred Danny Kaye, and the W.C. Fields classic "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man."
Mr. Freeman received an Academy Award nomination for his 1947 screenplay, "It Happened One Night," with Victor Moore and Charles Ruggles.
At age 18, in his native New York, Mr. Freeman was, his daughter said, the youngest regular contributor to the Saturday Evening Post. Later, in radio, he created the character Baby Snooks for Fanny Brice and introduced Danny Thomas and John Forsythe to broadcasting.
He was a charter member of the Writers Guild of America and founder and president emeritus of the Producers Guild of America.
In addition to his daughter, of Kauai, Hawaii, Mr. Freeman is survived by his wife, Helena; two sons, Jaik, of Los Angeles, and Michael, of Petaluma, Calif.; a daughter, Andrea, of San Rafael, Calif., and a grandson, Wyatt Taubman, of Kaui.
A correction was made on
Jan. 31, 1991
:
An obituary in some editions on Saturday and some editions on Sunday about Everett Freeman, a screenwriter and producer, misidentified the film for which he received an Academy Award nomination in 1947. It was "It Happened on Fifth Avenue," not "It Happened One Night."
A version of this article appears in print on , Section
1
, Page
13
of the National edition
with the headline:
Everett Freeman, 79, Prolific Screenwriter. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Advertisement