William Rose (screenwriter)
{{Short description|American screenwriter (1918–1987)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:Bill and Tania Rose 1944.JPG uniform) and Tania Price in 1943]]
William Rose (31 August 1918 – 10 February 1987) was an American screenwriter of British and Hollywood films.{{cite book|author=Leo Verswijver|title="Movies Were Always Magical": Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNQylJinyQsC&pg=PA85|date=27 February 2003|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1129-0|page=85}}
Life
{{more citations needed section|date=April 2017}}
Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, Rose traveled to Canada after the 1939 outbreak of World War II and volunteered to fight with the Black Watch.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/william-rose-p164371|title=William Rose - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos|website=AllMovie}} After being stationed at bases in Scotland and Europe, he returned to live in Britain at war's end to work as a screenwriter, marrying an English woman, Tania Price, with whom he would later collaborate.
Rose settled in Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1964.{{cite web |title=Oscar-winning screenwriter made his home in Jersey |url=https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/news/award-winning-screenwriter-made-his-home-jersey/ |website=Bailiwick Express |access-date=2024-01-24 |date=3 January 2019}}
After the couple separated/divorced, Tania returned to live in London in the autumn of 1967. Tania died in 2015 aged 95.{{cite news | url=http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Ladykillers-scriptwriter-Gloucestershire-village/story-28041941-detail/story.html#ixzz3pmU9hjwH | title='The Ladykillers' scriptwriter from Gloucestershire village dies aged 95 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024181946/http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Ladykillers-scriptwriter-Gloucestershire-village/story-28041941-detail/story.html#ixzz3pmU9hjwH |archivedate=2015-10-24 | newspaper=Gloucestershire Live | date=23 October 2015}}{{cite news | first=Claudia | last=Robinson | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/18/tania-rose-obituary | title=Tania Rose obituary | newspaper=The Guardian | date=18 December 2015}}
In the 1970s, he had a brief relationship with Katharine Hepburn.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8RsDAAAQBAJ&q=william+rose+katharine+hepburn+relationship&pg=PT244|title=Katharine Hepburn|first=Grace May|last=Carter|date=18 June 2016|publisher=New Word City|isbn=9781612309613|via=Google Books}}
He died in Jersey in 1987.{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba654d030|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712022442/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba654d030|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 July 2018|title=William Rose|website=BFI}} He is buried in the Churchyard at St. Clement Parish Church, Jersey. {{fact|date=March 2025}}
Career
Blessed with the ability to adapt to two distinct cultures, William Rose wrote a number of successful British comedies including Genevieve (1953).{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/562805/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Rose, William (1918-1987) Biography|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}} He became a working associate of the American-born director Alexander Mackendrick notably for his collaboration on The Maggie (US:High and Dry, 1954) and The Ladykillers (1955). He also provided scripts for Hollywood studios, earning several Academy Award nominations for his screenwriting and winning the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/william-rose-p164371/awards|title=William Rose - Movie and Film Awards|website=AllMovie}} Rose also won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Written American Comedy for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966).{{cite web|url=https://awards.wga.org/awards/nominees-winners/1995-1949|title=Writers Guild Awards Winners 1995-1949|website=awards.wga.org}}
In 1973, Rose's lifetime achievements were recognized by the Writers Guild of America with their Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement.{{cite web|url=https://awards.wga.org/awards/awards-recipients/laurel-awards/screen-laurel-previous-recipients|title=Screen Laurel Award Previous Recipients|website=awards.wga.org}}
Screenwriting awards
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! style="background:#bcbcbc;"|Year ! style="background:#bcbcbc;"|Award ! style="background:#bcbcbc;"|Category ! style="background:#bcbcbc;"|Film ! style="background:#bcbcbc;"|Result |
| 1954
| rowspan="4"| Academy Awards | {{nom}} |
| 1957
| {{nom}} |
| 1966
| Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium | The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | {{nom}} |
| 1967
| Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | {{won}} |
| 1954
| rowspan="6"| British Academy Film Awards | rowspan="5"| Best British Screenplay | {{nom}} |
| rowspan="2"| 1955
| The Ladykillers | {{won}} |
| Touch and Go
| {{nom}} |
| rowspan="2"| 1957
| The Man in the Sky (Shared with John Eldridge) | {{nom}} |
| The Smallest Show on Earth (Shared with John Eldridge)
| {{nom}} |
| 1968
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | {{nom}} |
| 1964
| Best Motion Picture Screenplay | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Shared with Tania Rose) | {{nom}} |
| 1966
| rowspan="2"| Golden Globe Awards | rowspan="2"| Best Screenplay | The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | {{nom}} |
| 1967
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | {{nom}} |
| 1967
| rowspan="5"| Writers Guild of America Awards | rowspan="2"| Best Written American Comedy | The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | {{won}} |
| rowspan="3"| 1968
| {{nom}} |
| Best Written American Drama
| rowspan="2"| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | {{nom}} |
| Best Written American Original Screenplay
| {{nom}} |
| 1972
| Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement | {{N/A}} | {{won|Honored}} |
Filmography
| class="wikitable"
! Year ! Title ! Director ! Notes |
| rowspan=2| 1948
| Jack Lee | Credited with Jack Lee & Cliff Gordon |
| Esther Waters
| Credited with Michael Gordon & Gerard Tyrrell |
| rowspan=2| 1950
| Credited with George Callahan |
| My Daughter Joy
| Credited with Robert Thoeren |
| 1952
| Credited with William Fairchild & Hugh Hastings |
| 1953
| |
| 1954
|rowspan=2| Alexander Mackendrick | |
| rowspan=2| 1955
| |
| Touch and Go
| |
| rowspan=2| 1957
| Credited with John Eldridge |
| The Smallest Show on Earth
| Credited with John Eldridge |
| 1963
| It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Credited with Tania Rose |
| 1966
| The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | |
| rowspan=2| 1967
| |
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
|rowspan=2| Stanley Kramer | |
| 1969
| The Secret of Santa Vittoria | |
Notes
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0741740}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for William Rose
|list =
{{Academy Award Best Original Screenplay}}
{{BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay}}
{{Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement}}
}}
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Category:Best British Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:British Army personnel of World War II
Category:People from Jefferson City, Missouri
Category:Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
Category:Screenwriters from Missouri
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American screenwriters