Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 – February 4, 1977) is the primary

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Davis Dresser, an American mystery and

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

writer. Halliday is best known for the long-lived series of

Michael Shayne Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. The character appeared in a series of seven films starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century Fo ...

mysteries he wrote, and later commissioned others to continue. Dresser also wrote westerns, non-series mysteries, and romances under the names Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.

Biography

Dresser was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, but mostly grew up in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwe ...

. Here he lost an eye to

barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is ...

as a boy, and thus had to wear an eye patch for the rest of his life. At the age of 14, he ran away from home and enlisted in the U.S. 5th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, followed by a year of Border Patrol duty on the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio ...

. After his service, he returned to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

to finish high school. In search of adventure, Dresser traveled throughout the Southwest working at various odd jobs, including that of muleskinner, farm hand, deckhand on a freighter in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...

, laborer in the California oilfields, etc. Eventually, he went to Tri-State College of Engineering, where he received a certificate in civil engineering. Back in Texas, he worked as an engineer and surveyor for several years before turning to writing in 1927. After his first marriage (to Kathleen Rollins, who had two daughters from a previous marriage), Dresser was married to mystery writer Helen McCloy from 1946 to 1961; they had a daughter named Chloe. As partners, they formed a literary agency called Halliday and McCloy. Dresser also established Torquil Publishing Company, which published his books as well as those of other authors, from 1953 to 1965. In 1961, he married Mary Savage, also a writer; their son, Halliday, was born in 1965. The first Shayne novel was rejected by 21 publishers before being accepted by Henry Holt & Co. in 1939. The Shayne series went on to be highly successful, reprinted in many editions and translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Japanese and Hebrew. A radio series based on the Shayne character was heard during the 1940s. Twelve motion pictures were made, seven of them featuring

Lloyd Nolan Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Among his many roles, Nolan is remembered for originating the role of private investigator Michael Shayne in a series of 1940s B movies. Bi ...

as Shayne. Five of the Nolan films, which were produced by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

, have been released on DVD: ''

Michael Shayne, Private Detective ''Michael Shayne, Private Detective'' is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver and Joan Valerie.Backer p.106 It is based on Brett Halliday's novel '' The Private Practice of Michael Shayn ...

''; '' Sleepers West''; '' Dressed to Kill''; '' Blue, White and Perfect'' and '' The Man Who Wouldn't Die.'' After the Fox series ended, five more Shayne films were made by

Producers Releasing Corporation Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestr ...

which featured Hugh Beaumont as the detective. There was also a TV series in 1960, starring Richard Denning, as well as a pulp fiction magazine that began as ''Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine'' in 1956 and ran for nearly 30 years. The 2005 film '' Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' is based partly on Halliday's novel ''Bodies Are Where You Find Them''. The 2016 film '' The Nice Guys'' gave an acknowledgment to the works of Brett Halliday.end credits, ''The Nice Guys'' In 1958, Dresser ceased penning the novels published under the name "Brett Halliday", and arranged for ghostwriters, among them

Bill Pronzini Bill Pronzini (born April 13, 1943) is an American writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories. Pronzini is k ...

and Robert Terrell, to continue the series. This was likewise the arrangement for the magazine, and for the Dell paperback originals. Dresser was a founding member of the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award, ...

, and in 1954 he and McCloy were given Edgar Awards for their critical writings on the genre. He lived in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coa ...

, until his death at the age of 72.

Novels

* ''

Dividend on Death ''Dividend on Death'' is a 1939 detective novel by the American writer Brett Halliday. It was the first novel in Halliday's Michael Shayne Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by write ...

'' (1939) * '' The Private Practice of Michael Shayne'' (1940) * ''The Uncomplaining Corpses'' (1940) * ''Tickets for Death'' (1941) * ''Bodies are Where You Find Them'' (1941) * ''The Corpse Came Calling'' (1942) * ''Murder Wears a Mummer's Mask'' (1943; AKA In a Deadly Vein) * ''Blood on the Black Market'' (1943; reprinted as Heads You Lose) * ''Michael Shayne's Long Chance'' (1944) * ''Dead Man's Diary'' (1944; AKA A Taste For Cognac) * ''Murder and the Married Virgin'' (1944) * ''Murder is My Business'' (1945) * ''Marked for Murder'' (1945) * ''Blood on Biscayne Bay'' (1946) * ''Counterfeit Wife'' (1947) * ''Blood on the Stars'' (1948) * ''A Taste for Violence'' (1949) * ''Call for Michael Shayne'' (1949) * ''This is It, Michael Shayne'' (1950) * ''Framed in Blood'' (1951) * ''What Really Happened'' (1952) * ''When Dorinda Dances'' (1953) * ''One Night with Nora'' (1953) * ''She Woke to Darkness'' (1954) * ''Death Has Three Lives'' (1955) * ''Stranger in Town'' (1955) * ''The Blonde Cried Murder'' (1956) * ''Weep for a Blonde'' (1957) * ''Shoot the Works'' (1957) * ''Murder and the Wanton Bride'' (1958) * ''Fit to Kill'' (1958; first of the ghost-written Shaynes) * ''Date with a Dead Man'' (1959) * ''Target: Michael Shayne'' (1959) * ''Die Like a Dog'' (1959) * ''Murder Takes no Holiday'' (1960) * ''Dolls are Deadly'' (1960) * ''The Homicidal Virgin'' (1960) * ''Killers from the Keys'' (1961) * ''Murder in Haste'' (1961) * ''The Careless Corpse'' (1961) * ''Pay-Off in Blood'' (1962) * ''Murder by Proxy'' (1962) * ''Never Kill a Client'' (1962) * ''Too Friendly, Too Dead'' (1962) * ''The Corpse that Never Was'' (1963) * ''The Body Came Back'' (1963) * ''A Redhead for Michael Shayne'' (1964) * ''Shoot to Kill'' (1964) * ''Michael Shayne's 50th Case'' (1964; the last hardcover Shayne novel, the rest being paperback originals) * ''The Violent World of Michael Shayne'' (1965) * ''Nice Fillies Finish Last'' (1965) * ''Murder Spins the Wheel'' (1966) * ''Armed...Dangerous...'' (1966) * ''Mermaid on the Rocks'' (1967) * ''Guilty as Hell'' (1967) * ''So Lush, So Deadly'' (1968) * ''Violence is Golden'' (1968) * ''Lady, Be Bad'' (1969) * ''Six Seconds to Kill'' (1970) * ''Fourth Down to Death'' (1970) * ''Count Backwards to Zero'' (1971) * ''I Come to Kill You'' (1971) * ''Caught Dead'' (1972) * ''Kill All the Young Girls'' (1973) * ''Blue Murder'' (1973) * ''Last Seen Hitchhiking'' (1974) * ''At the Point of a .38'' (1974) * ''Million Dollar Handle'' (1976) * ''Win Some, Lose Some'' (1976)

Films

With

: * ''

'' (1940) * '' Sleepers West'' (1941) * '' Dressed to Kill'' (1941) * '' Blue, White and Perfect'' (1942) * '' The Man Who Wouldn't Die'' (1942) * '' Just Off Broadway'' (1942) * '' Time to Kill'' (1942) With Hugh Beaumont: * ''Murder Is My Business'' (1946) * ''Larceny in Her Heart'' (1946) * ''Blonde for a Day'' (1946) * ''Three on a Ticket'' (1947) * '' Too Many Winners'' (1947)

References

External links

The Toughest Red head Ever
Brett Halliday explains the creation of Mike Shayne {{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, Brett 1904 births 1977 deaths American mystery writers Western (genre) writers Edgar Award winners Writers from Chicago Novelists from Texas Writers from California Deaths from cancer in California United States Border Patrol agents 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Illinois 20th-century pseudonymous writers

Biography

Novels

Films

See also

References

External links