Richard Brooks: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Born	May 18, 1912 • Philadelphia • Pennsylvania
Died	March 11, 1992 (aged 79) • Beverly Hills • California
Awards And Honors	Academy Award (1961)
Notable Works	“Blackboard Jungle” • “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” • “Crisis” • “Deadline— USA” • “Elmer Gantry” • “Fever Pitch” • “In Cold Blood” • “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” • “Lord Jim” • “Sweet Bird of Youth” • “The Brick Foxhole” • “The Professionals”
Notable Family Members	spouse Jean Simmons

Photos

Brooks, Richard

Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in a scene from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Taylor embracing Newman from behind as he stands in a blue robe holding a glass.

Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry

Madeleine Sherwood and Ed Begley in Sweet Bird of Youth

Burt Lancaster as Bill Dolworth crouches against red rocks, holding a revolver and smiling, in a scene from the western film The Professionals (1966).

See All Images →

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

John Huston

American director, writer, and actor

Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin

American writer and producer

William Goldman

William Goldman

American screenwriter, novelist, playwright, non-fiction author

Tyler Perry wearing a black suit and white shirt, holding an award and posing in front of a step and repeat backdrop at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

Tyler Perry

American playwright, actor, screenwriter, producer, and director

Garson Kanin

Garson Kanin

American writer and director

default image

Michael Crichton

American author

default image

Melvin Van Peebles

American author and filmmaker

Moore, Michael

Michael Moore

American filmmaker and author

default image

Dore Schary

American producer

default image

James Goldman

American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist

Billy Wilder poses in a suit and hat, leaning against a streetlamp with a sign reading Sunset Blvd. in a promotional photo for the film Sunset Boulevard.

Billy Wilder

Austrian-born American director and producer

Francis Ford Coppola, with a beard, sits on a camera dolly surrounded by crew and actors on the set of The Godfather: Part II, with storefronts in the background.

Francis Ford Coppola

American director and screenwriter

Mankiewicz, Joseph L.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

American filmmaker

Spike Lee wearing a suit, tie, and tortoiseshell glasses at the 2007 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

Spike Lee

American filmmaker

Author Larry McMurtry sits in a chair before shelves tightly packed with books in his bookstore.

Larry McMurtry

American author

Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone

American director, producer, and screenwriter

American author John Irving sits in a chair wearing a blue striped shirt, holding a book, with a bronze statue and dark wood paneling in the background.

John Irving

American author

Sherwood, photograph by Yousuf Karsh

Robert E. Sherwood

American playwright

default image

James L. Brooks

American screenwriter, director, and producer

Mario Puzo

Mario Puzo

American novelist and screenwriter

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) portrait by Carl Van Vecht April 3, 1938. Writer, folklorist and anthropologist celebrated African American culture of the rural South.

American Writers Quiz

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia