James Ashmore Creelman (September 21, 1894 – September 9, 1941) was a

film writer A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

Biography

He was born on September 21, 1894, in

Marietta, Ohio Marietta is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Ohio, United States. It is located in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, northeast of Parkersburg, West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, Ma ...

. He was the second son of

James Creelman James Creelman (November 12, 1859 – February 12, 1915) was a Canadian-American writer famous for securing a 1908 interview for ''Pearson's Magazine'' with Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, in which the strongman said that he would not run ...

, the

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and Alice Leffingwell Buell. He had a sister, Eileen Creelman, who married Frederick Morgan Davenport Jr., son of New York congressman Frederick Morgan Davenport. Creelman moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and then Washington, D.C. where his father worked as a journalist. He was a graduate of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

, where he edited campus humor magazine ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...

'' with

Clements Ripley Clements Ripley (August 26, 1892 – July 22, 1954) was an American fiction writer and screenwriter. Early life Ripley was born on August 26, 1892, in Tacoma, Washington. He was the son of Thomas E. Ripley, and the grandson of American Civil War ...

, writer of ''

Jezebel Jezebel (;"Jezebel"
(US) and ) was the daughte ...

''.

Creelman worked for

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

studios from 1929 and contributed to the storyline of many of the studios' early adventure and thriller films including ''

The Untamed Lady ''The Untamed Lady'' is a 1926 American silent film, silent drama film directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Gloria Swanson and Lawrence Gray. The film was also the debut of Nancy Kelly who was a child actress at the time. The film was written ...

'', ''

The Most Dangerous Game "The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell, first published in ''Collier's'' on January 19, 1924, with illustrations by Wilmot Emerton Heitland. The story features a big-game hunter ...

'', ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

'', ''

Dancers in the Dark ''Dancers in the Dark'' is a 1932 American pre-Code film about a taxi dancer (Miriam Hopkins), a big band leader (Jack Oakie), and a gangster (George Raft). George Raft, billed sixth, was listed much lower in the cast than the size of his role ...

'' and ''

The Last Days of Pompeii ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' is a novel written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. The novel was inspired by the painting ''The Last Day of Pompeii'' by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan. It culminates in ...

''. Creelman began working in Hollywood in 1924 and wrote for 30 films before stopping in 1935. He also directed the 1927 film '' High Hat''. On September 9, 1941, twelve days before his 47th birthday, Creelman committed suicide by jumping off the

roof garden A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational op ...

at the top of a building on 325 E. 72nd Street in

Manhattan, New York City, New York Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He was pronounced dead at

Metropolitan Hospital Metropolitan Hospital Center (MHC, also referred to as Metropolitan Hospital) is a hospital in East Harlem, New York City. It has been affiliated with New York Medical College since it was founded in 1875, representing the oldest partnership bet ...

Personal life

His paternal grandfather was born to Scots-Irish migrants to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

while his paternal grandmother was of Scottish descent. His mother was a native of Marietta, Ohio.

References

External links

* 1894 births 1941 suicides American male screenwriters American people of Canadian descent Writers from New York City People from Marietta, Ohio Suicides by jumping in New York City Yale University alumni Screenwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-screen-writer-stub