Zoe Akins

Personal Info

Known For Writer

Gender Female

Birthday 1886-10-20

Deathday 1958-10-29 (72 years old)

Place of Birth Humansville, Missouri, USA

Also Known As Zoë Akins

Zoe Akins

Biography

From Wikipedia Zoë Akins (October 30, 1886 – October 29, 1958) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, poet, and author. In the early 1930s, Akins became more active in film, writing several screenplays as well as licensing minor adaptations of her work—such as The Greeks Had a Word for It which was adapted twice, in 1932 (as The Greeks Had a Word for Them) and 1938 (as Three Blind Mice) – neither was a hit. Two highlights of this period are the films Sarah and Son (1930) and Morning Glory (1933), the latter film remade as Stage Struck. While both films earned their respective female leads (Ruth Chatterton and Katharine Hepburn) Academy Award nominations, neither was enough to launch Akins' career. Finally, Akins received recognition. In 1935, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her dramatization of Edith Wharton's The Old Maid, a melodrama set in New York City and written in five episodes stretching across time from 1839 to 1854. A film version of The Old Maid followed in 1939, starring Bette Davis. Akins also adapted the Alexandre Dumas novel, La dame aux camélias which was adapted into the film Camille in 1936. The film starred Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, and Lionel Barrymore, and earned Garbo her third Oscar nomination. To Akins' surprise, she was thrust into notoriety again in 1953, when Jean Negulesco directed an adaptation of The Greeks Had a Word for It. The film, titled How to Marry a Millionaire, became a box office sensation and helped launch the career of its star, Marilyn Monroe. Monroe's role in the Akins' play helped the rising star become a cultural icon, and encouraged Akins to pursue a short stint as a writer for several television variety programs.

Known For

Writer

1959
The Sad Horse

as Story

1958
Stage Struck

as Theatre Play

1956
1955
Matinee Theater

as Writer

1953
1947
Desire Me

as Writer

1939
The Old Maid

as Theatre Play

1938
Zaza

as Screenplay

1938
The Toy Wife

as Screenplay

1937
Conquest

as Writer

1936
Camille

as Screenplay

1936
Accused

as Screenplay

1936
Accused

as Story

1936
Lady of Secrets

as Screenplay

1934
Outcast Lady

as Screenplay

1933
Christopher Strong

as Screenplay

1933
Morning Glory

as Theatre Play

1932
1931
1931
Once a Lady

as Writer

1931
Working Girls

as Screenplay

1930
Sarah and Son

as Adaptation

1930
1930
Ladies Love Brutes

as Theatre Play

1930
Sarah and Son

as Screenplay

1930
Anybody's Woman

as Writer

1930
Sarah and Son

as Dialogue

1930
Anybody's Woman

as Dialogue

1930
A Whole Life

as Adaptation

1929
1925
Daddy's Gone A-Hunting

as Theatre Play

1925
Déclassé

as Theatre Play

1925
Eve's Secret

as Theatre Play