W·R·博内特

William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 – April 25, 1982) was an American crime novelist and screenwriter.

His debut novel Little Caesar (1929) was adapted into the 1931 film of the same name, which is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies. Several of his other novels and short stories were also adapted to screen, notably High Sierra and The Asphalt Jungle.

As a screenwriter, Burnett was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on Wake Island (1942). His other notable film credits included Scarface (1932), This Gun for Hire (1942), Vendetta (1950), and The Great Escape (1963).

Early life

Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio, and attended Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio. He left his civil service job in Springfield to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over 100 short stories and five novels, all unpublished.

Novelist

In Chicago, Burnett found a job as a night clerk in the Northmere Hotel. His experiences with the people at the hotel, including gangsters, inspired Little Caesar (novel 1929, film 1931). The novel's overnight success landed him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. Little Caesar became a classic movie, produced by First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) and starring then little known Edward G. Robinson.

Burnett was hired by Howard Hughes to write a draft of Scarface although director Howard Hawks disliked it and the script was rewritten by established playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht.

He won the 1930 O. Henry Award for his short story "Dressing-Up", published in Harper's in November 1929. In 1980, he won the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award.

Burnett published a novel or more a year and turned most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain, who all wrote in the hardboiled genre of fiction. He often contrasted the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for. He portrayed characters who, for one reason or another, fell into a life of crime and were unable to climb out. They typically get one last shot at salvation but the oppressive system closes in and denies redemption.

Screenwriter

Burnett wrote for many actors and directors, including Raoul Walsh, John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, Michael Cimino, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Paul Muni, Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, and Clint Eastwood. He received an Oscar nomination for his script for Wake Island (1942) and a Writers Guild nomination for his script for The Great Escape. In addition to his film work, he also wrote scripts for television and radio.

In High Sierra (1941), Humphrey Bogart plays Roy Earle, a hard-bitten criminal who rejects his life of crime to marry a crippled girl. In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the most perfectly masterminded plot falls apart as each character reveals a weakness. In The Beast of the City (1932) starring Walter Huston, the police take the law into their own hands when the criminals walk free due to legal incompetence.

Burnett was called back by Howard Hughes to work on Vendetta.

Later years

In later years, with his vision declining, he stopped writing and turned to promoting his earlier work. On his death in 1982, in Santa Monica, California, Burnett was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Critical reception

Heywood Broun described Burnett's novel Goodbye to the Past as "written with all the excitement of Little Caesar, and ten times the skill".