Career Highlights: The Fat Man, The Sons of Katie Elder, Creature from the Black Lagoon
First Major Screen Credit: Man Made Monster (1941)
Biography
A scriptwriter by the '40s, Harry J. Essex wrote such memorable '50s crime films as The Killer That Stalked New York, The Fat Man, and Kansas City Confidential, as well as two which he directed, I, the Jury and Mad at the World. He also scripted Jack Arnold's landmark science-fictioners It Came from Outer Space and The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and several sturdy westerns, including Henry Hathaway's The Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne. Essex started out in the theater after graduation from St. John's University. During WW II, he served in the U.S. army. In addition to writing screenplays, Essex wrote for the stage and for television series such as The Untouchables and Playhouse 90. He has also written three novels, which became the following films: Henry Levin's The Lonely Man, Man and Boy with Bill Cosby, and the spaghetti western Los Amigos/Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears with Anthony Quinn. Essex died of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 86. ~ All Movie Guide
