Legendary screenwriter Ernest Lehman dies

The man who wrote 'North By Northwest' and 'Sweet Smell of Success' passes away.

Jul  6 2005

Legendary Hollywood screenwriter Ernest Lehman has died at the age of 89.

The writer, producer and sometime director, whose credits include 'The Sound of Music', 'West Side Story' and 'North by Northwest', had recently recovered from pneumonia, and the cause of death was thought to be a heart attack.

A well-respected and critically acclaimed screenwriter throughout his career, Lehman's films were hugely successful at the box office and also won him countless awards.

He was nominated for six Oscars, but never received one until the Academy gave him a special award in 2001 (making Lehman the first writer to receive such an honour).

He had more success with the Writers Guild however; taking home awards for 'Sabrina', 'The King and I', 'West Side Story', 'The Sound of Music' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

Other great Lehman scripts include the Rocky Graziano boxing biopic 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' and the savage Hollywood satire 'Sweet Smell of Success', which he adapted from his own novella.

'A creative giant among writers and within the industry, Ernest possessed one of the most distinctive voices of the last half-century,' said Writers Guild president Daniel Petrie Jr. 'Adept at tackling a wide range of genres, his unforgettable contributions to the craft of screenwriting helped define what we've come to know as American film.'

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