- Sidney Kingsley
Sidney Kingsley (
October 18 1906 -October 18 1995 ) was aPulitzer Prize -winning American dramatist.Biography
Kingsley was born in
New York City in October of 1906 . He studied atCornell University , where he began his career writing plays for the college dramatic club. He joined the Group Theater as an actor upon its formation. In 1933 the company performed his play "Men in White". Set in a hospital, the play dealt chiefly with the morality ofabortion , and was a box-office smash. It won thePulitzer Prize for Drama in 1934.Kingsley followed this success with the play "Dead End" in 1935. A story about slum housing and its connection to crime, the piece was also fairly successful, eventually spawning the
Dead End Kids . The two plays which followed, the anti-war "Ten Million Ghosts " of 1936 and "The World We Make " of 1939, were flops and had short runs. But in 1943 Kingsley returned to his previous success with the historical drama "The Patriots". This play, which told the story ofThomas Jefferson and his activities in the young American republic, won theNew York Film Critics Circle Awards for Drama. Kingsley continued writing for the theater late into his career, adaptingArthur Koestler 's novel "Darkness at Noon " for the stage in 1951, and writing "Lunatics and Lovers " in 1954 and "Night Life" in 1962.In addition to his work for the stage, Kingsley wrote a number of scripts for
Hollywood productions, mostly based on his own work.His marriage to actress
Madge Evans in 1939 lasted until her death in 1981.Works
*(1933) "Men in White"
*(1935) "Dead End"
*(1936) "Ten Million Ghosts "
*(1939) "The World We Make "
*(1943) "The Patriots"
*(1949) "Detective Story "
*(1951) "Darkness at Noon "
*(1954) "Lunatics and Lovers "
*(1962) "Night Life"External links
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkingsley.htm Page at Spartacus Educational]
*
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