Wendell Mayes

Wendell Mayes (July 21, 1919, Hayti, Missouri - March 28, 1992, Santa Monica, California) was a Hollywood screenwriter. His father Von Mayes was a lawyer and his mother Irene (née Haynes) was a teacher.

Mayes began as an actor. An episode he wrote for the "Kraft Television Theatre" received a good review in a Los Angeles newspaper and Billy Wilder hired him to work on the script to the film The Spirit of St. Louis. That was his first credit in a successful screenwriting career.

For Anatomy of a Murder, Mayes received a New York Film Critics Circle Award for best screenplay in 1959 and an Oscar nomination in 1960. It is claimed to be one of the best trial movies of all time. Mayes died of cancer at the age of 72.

His screenwriting credits included:

• The Spirit of St. Louis (with Billy Wilder and Charles Lederer), Warner Brothers, 1957
• The Enemy Below, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957
• The Way to the Gold, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957
• From Hell to Texas (also known as Manhunt) (with Robert Buckner), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1958
• The Hunters, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1958
• The Hanging Tree (with Halsted Welles), Warner Brothers, 1959
• Anatomy of a Murder, Columbia, 1959
• North to Alaska (with John Lee Mahin, Martin Rackin, and Claude Binyon), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1960
• Advise and Consent, Columbia, 1962
• Von Ryan's Express (with Joseph Landon), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1965
• In Harm's Way, Paramount, 1965
• Hotel, Warner Brothers, 1967
• The Stalking Moon (with Alvin Sargent), National General Pictures,1968
• The Revengers, National General Pictures, 1972
• The Poseidon Adventure (with Stirling Silliphant), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1972
• Death Wish, Paramount, 1974
• Bank Shot, United Artists, 1974
• Go Tell the Spartans, Avco Embassy, 1978
• Love and Bullets (with John Melson), Associated Film Distribution,1979
• Monsignor, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1982