Mankiewicz, Joseph L.

Mankiewicz, Joseph L. (Leo)

(1909–92) movie director/producer, screenwriter; born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz). As a foreign correspondent in Berlin, he began translating German silent film titles into English, then went to Hollywood in 1929 to write titles and screenplays for Paramount. By 1936 he was a producer for Paramount, then Fox, directing his first film Dragonwyck in 1946. He went on to direct a series of literate, if overly literary films, winning Oscars for both screenplay and direction for both A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950).