Guy Bolton

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BIRTHDAY

November 23, 1885

Wilmington, DE

DIED

September 05, 1979

RECENT CREDITS

Anastasia (FILM) Nov. 14, 1997

Adorable Julia (FILM) Apr. 7, 1964

Anything Goes (FILM) Apr. 1, 1956

Easter Parade (FILM) Jan. 1, 1948

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BIOGRAPHY

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American writer Guy Bolton (often misidentified as an Englishman) was born to a prosperous Delaware family. He began his career as an architect, studying architecture in Europe. Turning to playwrighting in the World War I years, Bolton became, along with such notables as Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse, a mainstay of New York City's Princess Theatre, home to "intimate" musicals and revues. Bolton was among the first Broadway librettists to "integrate" his plots with the songs in his musicals, allowing the songs to advance the story--though the songs (by the likes of Kern, Gershwin and Cole Porter) were usually far more compelling than those stories. He would later recall his early musical comedy years in his breezy autobiography Bring on the Girls. Launching his screenwriting career in 1925 (many of his plays and novels had previously been adapted for the screen by others), Bolton was an on-and-off visitor to Hollywood throughout the 1920s and 1930s, though his heart remained on the New York stage. His biggest success in the 1950s was his stage play Anastasia, which was later filmed with Ingrid Bergman in the lead. After many years' absence from films, Guy Bolton returned to screenwriting with the ill-fated Franco-Austrian co-production Adorable Julia (62).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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