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Keene Thompson

Keene Thompson (November 15, 1885, in Minneapolis, Minnesota – July 11, 1937, in Hollywood, California) was a story, scenario and screenwriter who worked in the film industry from 1920 to 1937.[1][2]

Keene Thompson
Born
Robert Keene Thompson

(1885-11-15)November 15, 1885
Minneapolis, Minnesota
DiedJuly 11, 1937(1937-07-11) (aged 51)
Hollywood, California
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, CA
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Story writer
Scenario writer
Screenwriter
Years active1920–1937
Children3 (deceased)

Career

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Louise Brooks and Keene Thompson, 1927

Thompson had a small acting role in the 1917 Douglas Fairbanks Sr. film Reaching for the Moon,[3][4] but his first writing work was a screenplay for Fairbanks.[5] His last was scripting the Jack Benny musical Artists and Models.[6]

Some of his early silent film work was for the Christie Film Company,[7] but his later screenwriting was associated primarily with Paramount Pictures where he became a general story advisor.[5] At Paramount he was known for his work with Adolphe Menjou,[8][9] and had written scripts and special materials for such stars as Raymond Griffith, Gary Cooper and Clara Bow,[10] such as Clarence G. Badger's Paths to Paradise, Victor Fleming's The Virginian, and Frank Tuttle's True to the Navy.[10]

Fighting Caravans (1931), a story of the caravans of wagon trains that supplied freight to the pre-Civil War Old West before the completion of the transcontinental railways, was his adaption of a Zane Grey novel of the same name.[11] His work Man Against Woman for Irving Cummings was called a "forceful drama" and an "entertaining film".[12] During the later part of his career Thompson specialized in comedies. The more notable of these included Leo McCarey's Six of a Kind (1934) which used the top Paramount actors of the time, including Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, George Burns, W.C. Fields, Gracie Allen, Alison Skipworth.[10] The 1945 Frank R. Strayer comedy film Mama Loves Papa was based upon his screenplay for the 1933 Norman Z. McLeod film of the same name.[13][14]

Keene became ill in June 1937, just after completing the script for the Jack Benny musical comedy Artists and Models.[6] On July 11, 1937, he died of lobar pneumonia.[5] His body is interred in the Great Mausoleum, Columbarium of the Graces at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, CA.

Filmography

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Silent films

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Sound films

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References

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  1. ^ Henryk Hoffmann (2000). "A" Western filmmakers: a biographical dictionary of writers, directors, cinematographers, composers, actors and actresses. McFarland. pp. 87, 104. ISBN 0-7864-0696-8.
  2. ^ "Keene Thompson". Variety. July 14, 1937.
  3. ^ Jay Robert Nash; Robert Connelly; Stanley Ralph Ross (1988). Motion Picture Guide Silent Film 1910-1936. Cinebooks. p. 229. ISBN 0-933997-10-8.
  4. ^ "Keene Thompson with Fairbanks". Motion Picture World. September 22, 1917. p. 1831.
  5. ^ a b c d "Veteran Screen Writer, Keene Thompson, Dies". Milwaukee Journal. July 12, 1937. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  6. ^ a b c Motion Picture Herald. Vol. 124, Issues 1-6. Quigley Pub. Co. 1936. p. 92.
  7. ^ International motion picture almanac. Quigley Publications. 1943. p. 374.
  8. ^ John Douglas Eames (1985). The Paramount story. Crown. pp. 51, 55, 79, 104. ISBN 0-517-55348-1.
  9. ^ "Adolphe Menjou at California". San Jose News. November 20, 1928. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  10. ^ a b c d Erickson, Hal. "Keene Thompson biography". Allmovie. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  11. ^ "Gary Cooper, State, 'fighting Caravans'". Reading Eagle. February 15, 1931. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  12. ^ William Gaines (October 19, 1933). "About New York". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  13. ^ a b The New York Times film reviews, Volume 2. 1932. p. 963. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  14. ^ a b John Flowers; Paul Frizler (2004). Psychotherapists on film, 1899-1999: a worldwide guide to over 5000 films. McFarland. p. 370. ISBN 0-7864-1908-3.
  15. ^ a b c Library of Congress Copyright Office (1920). Catalogue of copyright entries: Pamphlets, leaflets, contributions to newspapers or periodicals, etc.; lectures, sermons, addresses for oral delivery; dramatic compositions; maps; motion pictures. Government Printing Office. pp. 82, 164, 531.
  16. ^ American Film Institute (1997). The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-520-20969-9.
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