ERNEST LEHMAN

Ernest Lehman was born in New York in 1915. One of his first notable jobs was as a copywriter for a Broadway publicist, and many years later he immortalized this world in his screenplay for "Sweet Smell of Success" (and J.J. Hunsaker was based on Walter Winchell, who Lehman had supplied tips for, much as Sidney Falco did). After writing for magazines, he broke into Hollywood as a screenwriter, and had a remarkable succession of great successes: Executive Suite, Sabrina, The King and I, the aforementioned Sweet Smell of Success, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and more! Although he wrote some of the best loved movies of all time, he is likely best remembered for his screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest. He was married from 1942 until his wife's passing in 1994. In 1997 he married again (at the age of 82), and fathered a child two years later at the age of 86! He passed away in 2005 at the age of 89.