Delmer Daves

Delmer Daves (July 24, 1904 – August 17, 1977) was an American screenwriter, director, and producer.

Life and career

Born in San Francisco, Delmer Daves first pursued a career as a lawyer. While attending Stanford University he became interested in the burgeoning film industry, first working as a prop boy on the 1923 western The Covered Wagon and serving as a technical advisor on a number of films. After finishing his education in law, he continued his career in Hollywood.

After moving to Hollywood in 1928, he began his career as a screenwriter, his first credit being the "talkie" comedy So This Is College released by MGM. Through the 1930s he made a name as a successful screenplay and story writer, while moonlighting as an actor in bit parts and uncredited roles. He penned the successful Dick Powell musicals Dames, Flirtation Walk, and Page Miss Glory between 1934 and 1935. Daves largest successes of the period, however, came with 1936's The Petrified Forest and Love Affair (1939). Almost twenty years later Leo McCarey, director of Love Affair, would helm the nearly identical An Affair to Remember (1957) using Daves' script.

Daves made his directorial debut in the Cary Grant wartime adventure Destination Tokyo in 1943. Over the course of Daves' twenty-two year career, Daves cultivated an unpretentious style, taking a relaxed approach to filming and letting the actors and screenplay drive the film. His most notable films include Dark Passage (1947), which utilized a first-person approach to great effect, the critically acclaimed Broken Arrow (1950), the taut western 3:10 to Yuma (1957) the cold war drama Never Let Me Go (1953), and the melodramatic A Summer Place (1959). Daves garnered a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for his work on 1958's Cowboy. Spencer's Mountain (1963), which he wrote, directed, and produced, was based upon Earl Hamner's auto-biographical novel of the same name, and served as the basis for the popular television series The Waltons.

Daves was married to actress Mary Lawrence from 1938 until his death on August 17, 1977.

Selected filmography

• Queen Kelly (1929, writer)
• Dames (1934, writer)
• Flirtation Walk (1934, writer)
• Page Miss Glory (1935, writer)
• The Petrified Forest (1936, writer)
• Love Affair (1939, writer)
• You Were Never Lovelier (1942, writer)
• Destination Tokyo (1943, director and writer)
• The Very Thought of You (1944, director and writer)
• Hollywood Canteen (1944, director and writer)
• The Red House (1947, director and writer)
• Dark Passage (1947, director and writer)
• Task Force (1949, director and writer)
• Broken Arrow (1950, director)
• Bird of Paradise (1951, director and writer)
• Never Let Me Go (1953, director)
• Drum Beat (1954, director, writer, and producer)
• White Feather (1955, writer)
• The Last Wagon (1956, director and writer)
• 3:10 to Yuma (1957, director)
• An Affair to Remember (1957, writer)
• Cowboy (1958, director)
• The Hanging Tree (1959, director)
• A Summer Place (1959, director, writer, and producer)
• Parrish (1961, director, writer, and producer)
• Rome Adventure (1962, director, co-writer, producer)
• Spencer's Mountain (1963, director, writer, and producer)
• Youngblood Hawke (1964, director, writer)
• The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965, director, producer, writer)

External links

• Delmer Daves at the Internet Movie Database

Research resources

• Delmer Daves Papers, 1930-1965 (38.5 linear ft.) are housed in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries