Krasna, Norman (1909–84), playwright. Born in Corona, New York, he studied at Columbia and at St. John's Law School before becoming a dramatic critic for the World and then the Evening Graphic. After seeing two of his plays on Broadway, Louder, Please (1931) and Small Miracle (1934), Krasna went to Hollywood, returning for The Man with Blond Hair (1941) before finally finding success with the wartime comedy Dear Ruth (1944). Thereafter all of Krasna's best work was of a similar order: John Loves Mary (1947), Time for Elizabeth (1948), Kind Sir (1953), Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? (1958), Sunday in New York (1961), and Love in E Flat (1967). His final Broadway entry was the short‐lived melodrama We Interrupt This Program (1975).
Born: Nov 07, 1909 in Corona Queens, New York City, New York
Died: Nov 01, 1984 in Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Writer, Director
Active: '30s-'60s
Major Genres: Comedy, Romance
Career Highlights: White Christmas, Indiscreet, The Devil and Miss Jones
First Major Screen Credit: Hollywood Speaks (1932)
Biography
Producer, writer, director and bon vivant Norman Krasna was educated at NYU, Columbia and the Brooklyn Law School. He worked as a film and theatre critic in New York before heading to Hollywood to join Warner Bros.' publicity department. Developing a talent for turning out funny material in a minimum amount of time, Krasna became a valuable man to have around for producers of such economical comedy films as Wheeler and Woolsey's So This Is Africa (1933) and Miriam Hopkins' The Richest Girl in the World (1934). He proved equally adept at drama, turning out the original stories for director Fritz Lang's powerful anti-lynching tract Fury (1936) and Lang's Brechtian You and Me (1938).
As busy on Broadway as he was in Hollywood, Krasna penned several popular stage plays, many of which (Dear Ruth, Kind Sir, Who Was That Lady?) were later committed to film. Krasna turned director for four films -- Princess O'Rourke (1943), The Big Hangover (1950) and The Ambassador's Daughter (1956) -- and served as producer for many more. A longtime friend of comedian Groucho Marx, Krasna collaborated with Groucho on the screenplay of the 1937 film comedy The King and the Chorus Girl and the later stage play Time for Elizabeth. Norman Krasna won a "Best Original Screenplay" Academy Award for Princess O'Rourke, and earned nominations for The Richest Girl in the World, Fury and The Devil and Miss Jones (1941). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide