Ernest Lehman

Lore & Background

Lehman was born in 1915 to a Jewish family on Long Island. After earning a bachelor's degree from the College of the City of New York, he trained at the New England Radio Institute during World War II and worked as a radio operator for the aviation industry. He began his career as a freelance writer, then wrote copy for a publicity firm focused on plays and celebrities, an experience he drew on for his novelette *Sweet Smell of Success* (1957). His short stories appeared in magazines such as *Colliers*, *Redbook*, and *Cosmopolitan*, leading to a writing contract with Paramount Pictures in the mid-1950s. His first film, *Executive Suite* (1954), was a success, and he collaborated on the romantic comedy *Sabrina* (1954).

Lehman's most notable screenplays include adaptations of the musicals *West Side Story* (1961) and *The Sound of Music* (1965). For *The Sound of Music*, he expanded the stage version by using real locations in Salzburg, incorporating the Felsenreitschule into the screenplay as the folk festival setting. His collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock produced *North by Northwest* (1959), his only original screenplay, which he intended as 'the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures.' The writing process took a year, including periods of writer's block and a research trip to Mount Rushmore. He later earned another Edgar Award for Hitchcock's final film, *Family Plot* (1976).

Lehman also worked as a producer, notably championing the film adaptation of Edward Albee's *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?* and producing *Hello, Dolly!* (1969). He directed one film, *Portnoy's Complaint* (1972). By 1979 he had stopped writing screenplays, aside from some television projects, and turned down offers to write for *The Silence of the Lambs* and *Mission: Impossible*. He published the bestselling novel *The French Atlantic Affair* in 1977, which was adapted as a TV miniseries. Lehman held amateur radio callsign K6DXK and was an active member of the Bel Air Repeater Association.

Reader's Guide

Ernest Lehman's significance lies in his screenwriting career, which earned him six Academy Award nominations and, in 2001, an Honorary Academy Award—the first ever given to a screenwriter. His work on *North by Northwest* is considered a landmark original screenplay, and his adaptations of *West Side Story* and *The Sound of Music* became iconic films. He received more honorable recognition from the Writers Guild of America than any other screenwriter in film history. His two Edgar Awards for suspense screenplays written for Alfred Hitchcock underscore his skill in that genre. Lehman's legacy also includes his role as a producer on critically acclaimed films such as *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?* and his brief foray into directing. Outside Hollywood, he was an active amateur radio operator with callsign K6DXK, a member of the Bel Air Repeater Association. He died in 2005 at UCLA Medical Center after an apparent heart attack and was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Did You Know?

• Lehman was the first screenwriter to receive an Honorary Academy Award, at the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001.
• He earned two Edgar Awards for screenplays he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock: *North by Northwest* (1959) and *Family Plot* (1976).