Dudley Nichols (April 6, 1895 – January 4, 1960) was an American screenwriter who first came to prominence after winning and refusing the screenwriting Oscar for The Informer in 1936.
The reason for Nichols' refusal was the fact that the Screen Writers Guild was on strike at the time.
Nichols wrote the screenplays for over sixty movies including such classics as Stagecoach (1939), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Scarlet Street (1945), And Then There Were None (1945) and The Tin Star (1957).
Nichols' crowning achievement, though, was probably his collaboration with Hagar Wilde on the screenplay for Bringing Up Baby (1938), considered one of the funniest of the 1930s screwball comedies. This movie, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, was underappreciated on first release but later recognized as a unique classic.
Dudley Nichols served as president of the Screen Writers Guild during 1937 and 1938.
He worked on many films and for many years with director John Ford.
Nichols has the interesting distinction of being the first artist to refuse an Academy Award, an act followed by George C. Scott and Marlon Brando.
Nichols was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He studied at the University of Michigan where he was active member of the Sigma Chapter of Theta Xi fraternity. He died in Hollywood from cancer in 1960 and was interred there in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Famous quotes by dudley nichols:
“Kitty March: O-o-o-oh Johnny!
Johnny Prince: Hey lazy legs.
Kitty March: Jeepers, I love ya....”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“Every time we get near the land you get that look on your face. When a man goes to sea, he ought to give up thinking about things on shore. Land don’t want him no more. I’ve had me share of things go wrong and all come from the land. Now I’m through with the land and the land’s through with me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“I devoutly believe it is the writer who has matured the film medium more than anyone else in Hollywood. Even when he knew nothing about his work, he brought at least knowledge of life and a more grown-up mind, a maturer feeling about the human being.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“Christopher Cross: You shouldn’t be alone in the street so late at night.
Kitty March: I was coming home from work.
Christopher Cross: You work this late?
Kitty March: Mmm, hmmm.
Christopher Cross: What do you do?
Kitty March: Guess.
Christopher Cross: You’re an actress.
Kitty March: Oh, you are clever!”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)