(science-fiction writer; 1920–) Moby Dick (1956); Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
4 BERTOLT BRECHT (playwright; 1898–1956) Hangmen Also Die (1943)
5 CHARLES BUKOWSKI (poet and novelist; 1920–1994) The Killers (1984); Barfly (1987); Lonely at the Top (1993)
6 TRUMAN CAPOTE (novelist; 1924–1984) Beat the Devil (1954); The Innocents (1961)
7 RAYMOND CHANDLER (detective story writer; 1888–1959) And Now Tomorrow (1944); Double Indemnity (1944); The Unseen (1945); The Blue Dahlia (1946); Strangers on a Train (1951)
8 MICHAEL CRICHTON (novelist; 1942–) Westworld (1973); Coma (1978); The Great Train Robbery (1979); Jurassic Park (1993); Rising Sun (1993)
9 ROALD DAHL (author; 1916–1990) You Only Live Twice (1967); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968); Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
10 WILLIAM FAULKNER (novelist; 1897–1962) Today We Live (1933); Road to Glory (1936); To Have and Have Not (1945); The Big Sleep (1946); Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
11 F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (novelist; 1896–1940) A Yank at Oxford (1938); Three Comrades (1938); Gone with the Wind (1939); The Women (1939); Madame Curie (1943)
12 CARLOS FUENTES (novelist; 1928–) Pedro Paramo (1967); Muneca Riera (1971)
13 GRAHAM GREENE (novelist; 1904–91) The Green Cockatoo (1937); The Fallen Idol (1948); The Third Man (1950); Saint Joan (1957); Our Man in Havana (1960); The Comedians (1967)
14 DASHIELL HAMMETT (detective story writer; 1894–1961) City Streets (1931); Mister Dynamite (1935); After the Thin Man (1937); Another Thin Man (1939); Watch on the Rhine (1943)
15 ERNEST HEMINGWAY (novelist; 1899–1961) The Spanish Earth (1937); The Old Man and the Sea (1956)
16 ALDOUS HUXLEY (novelist and essayist; 1894–1956) Pride and Prejudice (1940); Jane Eyre (1944); A Woman’s Vengeance (1948)
17 CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD (writer; 1904–1986) Rage in Heaven (1941); Forever and a Day (1944); The Loved One (1965); Frankenstein, the True Story (1973)
18 WILLIAM KENNEDY (novelist; 1928–) The Cotton Club (1984); Ironweed (1987)
19 NORMAN MAILER (novelist; 1923–) Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987); King Lear (1987) 20.
20 LARRY McMURTRY (novelist; 1936–) The Last Picture Show (1971); Falling from Grace (1992)
21 ARTHUR MILLER (playwright; 1915–) Death of a Salesman (1951); Let’s Make Love (1960); The Misfits (1961); An Enemy of the People (1977); Everybody Wins (1990)
22 JOHN OSBORNE (playwright; 1929–94) The Entertainer (1960); Tom Jones (1963); England, My England (1995)
23 DOROTHY PARKER (short-story writer; 1893–1967) Suzy (1936); A Star Is Born (1937); Weekend for Three (1941); Saboteur (1942); The Fan (1949)
24 S.J. PERELMAN (humorist; 1904–79) Horse Feathers (1932); Sitting Pretty (1933); Florida Special (1936); Boy Trouble (1939); Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
25 HAROLD PINTER (playwright; 1930–) The Birthday Party (1968); The Go-Between (1971); The Last Tycoon (1976); The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981); The Trial (1993)
26 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (playwright; 1856–1950) Pygmalion (1938); Major Barbara (1941); Caesar and Cleopatra (1946)
27 SAM SHEPARD (playwright; 1943–) Zabriske Point (1970); Paris, Texas (1984); Silent Tongue (1993)
28 NEIL SIMON (playwright; 1927–) Barefoot in the Park (1967); The Sunshine Boys (1975); The Goodbye Girl (1977); The Lonely Guy (1984); Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986); Lost in Yonkers (1993)
29 JOHN STEINBECK (novelist; 1902–1968) The Forgotten Village (1941); The Pearl (1948); The Red Pony (1949); Viva Zapata (1952)
30 TOM STOPPARD (playwright; 1937–) Brazil (1985); Empire of the Sun (1987); The Russia House (1990); Shakespeare in Love (1998)
31 JIM THOMPSON (crime novelist; 1906–77) The Killing (1956); Paths of Glory (1957)
32 GORE VIDAL (novelist; 1925–) I Accuse (1958); Suddenly Last Summer (1959); Ben Hur (1959); The Best Man (1961); Caligula (1980)
33 EDGAR WALLACE (novelist; 1875–1932) King Kong (1933)
34 NATHANAEL WEST (novelist; (1903–40) Ticket to Paradise (1936); It Could Happen to You (1937); Five Came Back (1939); I Stole a Million (1939); Let’s Make Music (1940)
35 THORNTON WILDER (novelist and playwright; (1897–1975) The Dark Angel (1935); Our Town (1940); Shadow of a Doubt (1943).
36 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (playwright; 1911–83) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); Baby Doll (1956); Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
37 TOM WOLFE (journalist and novelist; 1937–) Three Ways to Love (1969)
– C.F. & F.B.
8 Memorable Lines Erroneously Attributed to Film Stars
1 ‘Smile when you say that, pardner.’ What Gary Cooper actually said to Walter Huston in The Virginian (1929) was, ‘If you want to call me that, smile.’
2 ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane.’ Johnny Weismuller’s first Tarzan role was in Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932). He introduced himself to co-star Maureen O’Sullivan by thumping his chest and announcing, ‘Tarzan’. He then gingerly tapped her chest and said, ‘Jane’.
3 ‘You dirty rat.’ In fact, James Cagney never uttered this line in any of his roles as a hard-boiled gangster. It has often been used by impersonators, however, to typify Cagney’s tough-guy image.
4 ‘Come with me to the Casbah.’ Charles Boyer cast seductive glances at Hedy Lamarr throughout Algiers (1938), but he never did make this suggestion. Delivered with a French accent, the line appeals to many Boyer imitators who enjoy saying, ‘Come weez mee …’
5 ‘Why don’t you come up and see me sometime?’ Cary Grant found himself the recipient of Mae West’s lusty invitation, ‘Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?’ in She Done Him Wrong (1933).
6 ‘Play it again, Sam.’ In Casablanca (1942) Ingrid Bergman dropped in unexpectedly at old lover Humphrey Bogart’s nightclub, where she asked the piano player to ‘Play it, Sam’, referring to the song ‘As Time Goes By’. Although Bogart’s character was shocked at hearing the song that reminded him so painfully of his lost love, he also made Sam play it again – but the words he used were, ‘You played it for her, you can play it for me … play it.’
7 ‘Judy, Judy, Judy.’ Cary Grant has never exclaimed this line in any film, but imitators often use it to display their Cary Grant-like accents.
8 ‘I want to be alone.’ In 1955, retired film star Greta Garbo – despairing of ever being free of publicity – said, ‘I want to be let alone.’ The melodramatic misinterpretation, however, is the way most people have heard and quoted it.
– K.P.
17 Movie Stars and How They Were Discovered
1 FATTY ARBUCKLE The hefty comedian got his first break due to a blocked drain. Working as a plumber’s assistant, he was summoned to unclog Mack Sennett’s pipes in 1913 and the producer immediately offered Arbuckle a job in his Keystone Kops comedies.
2 RICHARD ARLEN He was working as a film lab runner at Paramount Studios in 1922 when he was struck by a company car and hospitalised with a broken leg. Studio executives took notice and offered him a chance to act.
3 WALTER BRENNAN He got his start in Hollywood in 1932 when he did a voice-over for a donkey. The actor volunteered to help a film director who was having difficulty getting the animal to bray on cue.
4 ELLEN BURSTYN She was cast in her first major role in Tropic of Cancer (1969) on the basis of a political speech that director Joseph Strick heard her delivering.
5 GARY COOPER Working as a stunt man,