Andrew Lysander Stone (July 16, 1902 – June 9, 1999) was an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

for the film '' Julie'' in 1957 and received a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

in 1960. Known for his hard-hitting, realistic films, Stone frequently collaborated with his second wife, editor and producer Virginia Lively Stone (m. 1946). Though few of his films achieved mainstream success, Stone was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

for his

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

thriller '' Julie''. Stone's stories frequently featured characters called Cole, Pringle and Pope, usually in law enforcement and interchangeably played by the same actors—

Jack Kruschen Jacob "Jack" Kruschen (March 20, 1922 – April 2, 2002) was a Canadian character actor who worked primarily in American film, television and radio. Kruschen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dr. Dreyf ...

Barney Phillips Bernard Philip Ofner (October 20, 1913 – August 17, 1982), better known by his stage name Barney Phillips, was an American film, television, and radio actor. His roles include that of Sgt. Ed Jacobs on the 1950s '' Dragnet'' television ser ...

and

John Gallaudet John Beury Gallaudet (August 23, 1903 – November 5, 1983) was an American film and television actor. Career Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia and attended Williams College. He began his theatrical career on stage, appearing on Broadway in ...

. Roles with those names were included in ''A Blueprint for Murder'', ''The Night Holds Terror'', ''Julie'', ''Cry Terror!'' and ''The Decks Ran Red''.

Career

Born in Oakland, California, Andrew L. Stone attended the University of California. He built a movie theater in his back yard, with two projectors and seats for 50 kids. Films were bought at a dollar a reel. Stone worked for a film exchange for Universal after school and on Sundays. "I wanted anything I could get to do with films - rewinding, splicing, projecting," he once said.Obituary: Andrew L. Stone Brownlow, Kevin. Variety; Los Angeles Vol. 381, Iss. 2, (Nov 27-Dec 3, 2000): 71. In the mid-'20s, he moved to Hollywood and worked in a laboratory. He also worked in Universal's prop department.

Early movies

In 1926, Stone financed his first directorial effort ''The Elegy'' (1926), a two-reel movie. It cost $3,200, which he had raised himself and was made on sets left over from ''Scaramouche''. His first full-length feature was '' Dreary House'' (1928). He worked as director on '' Shadows of Glory'' (1930), '' Hell's Headquarters'' (1932) and '' The Girl Said No'' (1937).

Paramount

Stone said that MGM offered him a contract in the mid 1930s but he was reluctant to take it. He later said, “I’d have had to pacify the stars and keep them happy – like a priest who doesn’t believe a word of what he says. Then there was a Paramount contract — no big stars, but freedom. That’s the one I went for. It didn’t take me long to see I’d never make a nickel, but I didn’t give a damn.” Stone signed a contract at Paramount for whom he made '' Stolen Heaven'' (1938), '' Say It in French'' (1938) with

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. He is often remembered for his portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's ''The Lost Weekend'' (1945), which wo ...

, '' The Great Victor Herbert'' (1939), and '' The Hard-Boiled Canary'' (1941). He was meant to make ''Manhattan Rhapsody'' for the studio. At 20th Century Fox he earned acclaim for directing the 1943 film '' Stormy Weather'', starring

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...

United Artists

Stone formed his own production company, Andrew L Stone Productions, with his then-wife Virginia. They signed a deal with

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

to make two films: '' Hi Diddle Diddle'' (1943) and '' Sensations of 1945'' (1944). United Artists were pleased enough to offer him a deal to make four more films over eighteen months: '' Bedside Manner'' (1945), '' The Bachelor's Daughters'' (1946), and '' Fun on a Weekend'' (1947). They left United Artists in 1947. He did some uncredited directing on '' The Countess of Monte Cristo'' (1948).

Thrillers

Stone went to Warner Bros for '' Highway 301'' (1950). ''Highway 301'' was a crime film and ushered in a series of movies from Stone in that genre. "I had to talk Bernie Foy at Warners into letting me do a melodrama," Stone said later. "I made it practically for nothing to establish myself in that field." It would be Stone's last film shot in a studio. He did '' Confidence Girl'' (1952), and two with Joseph Cotten, '' The Steel Trap'' (1952) and '' A Blueprint for Murder'' (1953). He did '' The Night Holds Terror'' (1955) at Columbia.

MGM

Stone signed a two-picture deal at MGM for whom he made '' Julie'' (1956), a thriller with

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...

and

Louis Jourdan Louis Jourdan (born Louis Robert Gendre; 19 June 1921 – 14 February 2015) was a French film and television actor. He was known for his suave roles in several Hollywood films, including Alfred Hitchcock's '' The Paradine Case'' (1947), '' Let ...

, and ''

Cry Terror! ''Cry Terror!'' (aka ''The Third Rail'') is a 1958 American crime thriller film starring James Mason, Inger Stevens, and Rod Steiger. The story was written and directed by Andrew L. Stone. The film also features Neville Brand, Jack Klugman and ...

'' (1958), with

Rod Steiger Rodney Stephen Steiger ( ; April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Ranked as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars", he is closely associ ...

. (He had intended to follow Julie with a film about smoking, ''The Last Puff'', but it was not made.) ''Julie'' was a hit so MGM signed them to make four more movies: '' The Decks Ran Red'' (1959), '' The Last Voyage'' (1960), ''

Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is about long and up to about wide, and surrounds most of the Pa ...

'' (1961), and '' The Password Is Courage'' (1962) with

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House (film), Doctor in the Hous ...

. He did '' Never Put It in Writing'' (1964) with

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films. Boone ...

for Allied Artists, filmed in England and Ireland. He signed a new two-picture deal with MGM. The first was '' The Secret of My Success'' (1965). The second was meant to be a history of aviation written by Ernest Gann, ''The Winning of the Sky'', but it was never made.

Later movies

Stone made a musical for ABC Pictures titled '' Song of Norway'' (1970), a $3.5 million musical biopic of

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic music, Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwid ...

.Movies: A 'Song of Norway' With Verisimilitude Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times 8 Nov 1970: t16. The film performed reasonably well, but his next film '' The Great Waltz'' (1972) was a big flop. In 1977, he did some work for Universal on the action and disaster sequences for ''Rollercoaster''.

Personal life

Stone was married three times: * Anne Harrington McCrary (m.1927-1946; divorced) They had two sons, Andrew Lysander Stone and Bruce Harrington Stone. * Virginia Lively (m.1946-1970; divorced) They had two sons, Lively Andrew Stone and Christopher L. Stone. The latter of whom is a television and film composer * Audrey (m. 19??-1999; his death) In her memoir, Evelyn Keyes claimed that during production on ''Say It In French'' (1938), Stone raped her, which resulted in a pregnancy. Keyes aborted the pregnancy, leaving her weakened and permanently unable to have children. Rather than postponing production, Stone had her fired and replaced with Olympe Bradna.Keyes, Evelyn (1977). ''Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister''. Lyle Stuart. pp. 26–27. .

Selected filmography

*''The Elegy'' (1927) (short) - writer, director *''Fantasy'' (1927) (short) - director *''Adoration'' (1927) (short) - writer, director *''Liebensraum '' (1928) -director * '' Dreary House'' (1928) - writer, director * '' Shadows of Glory'' aka ''Sombras de gloria'' (1930) - director *'' Hell's Headquarters'' (1932) - director *'' The Girl Said No'' (1937) - director, writer, producer * '' With Words and Music'' (1937) director * '' Stolen Heaven'' (1938) - director, writer * '' Say It in French'' (1938) - director, producer * '' The Great Victor Herbert'' (1939) - director, writer, producer * '' The Hard-Boiled Canary'' (1941) - director, producer, writer * '' Stormy Weather'' (1943) - director * '' Hi Diddle Diddle'' (1943) - director, producer, original story * '' Sensations of 1945'' (1944) - director, writer, producer * '' Bedside Manner'' (1945) - director, producer * '' The Bachelor's Daughters'' (1946) - director, writer, producer * '' Fun on a Weekend'' (1947) - director, writer, producer * '' The Countess of Monte Cristo'' (1948) - director, uncredited * '' Highway 301'' (1950) - director, writer * '' Confidence Girl'' (1952) - director, writer, producer * '' The Steel Trap'' (1952) - director, writer * '' A Blueprint for Murder'' (1953) - director, writer * '' The Night Holds Terror'' (1955) - director, writer, producer *''

Screen Directors Playhouse ''Screen Directors Playhouse'' (sometimes written as ''Screen Directors' Playhouse'') is an American radio and television anthology series which brought leading Hollywood actors to the NBC microphones beginning in 1949. The radio program broadca ...

'' episode "The Final Tribute" (1955) - writer, director * '' Julie'' (1956) - director, writer * ''

'' (1958) - director, writer, producer * '' The Decks Ran Red'' (1958) - director, writer, producer * '' The Last Voyage'' (1960) - director, writer, producer * ''

'' (1961) - director, writer, producer * '' The Password Is Courage'' (1962) - director, writer, producer * '' Never Put It in Writing'' (1964) - director, writer, producer * '' The Secret of My Success'' (1965) - director, producer * '' Song of Norway'' (1970) - director, writer, producer * '' The Great Waltz'' (1972) - director, writer, producer

References

External links

*
Andrew L Stone papers
at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Andrew L Stone
at Letterbox DVD
Andrew L Stone
at BFI
Article on Andrew and Virginia Stone
at Bright Lights Film Journal {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Andrew L. 1902 births 1999 deaths American male screenwriters Film producers from California Mass media people from Oakland, California 20th-century American businesspeople Film directors from California Screenwriters from California 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters