Albert Hackett

Albert Maurice Hackett (February 16, 1900 – March 16, 1995) was a New York-born actor, dramatist, and screenwriter whose career spanned Broadway performance, playwriting, and Hollywood screenwriting. The son of actress Florence Hackett and Maurice Hackett, he began performing at age six, appearing on both stage and in films. He attended Professional Children's School and also toured in vaudeville. His brother was actor Raymond Hackett, whose second wife was silent film actress Blanche Sweet. Their mother Florence married early film actor Arthur V. Johnson around 1910.

Hackett's Broadway performing career ran from 1909 to 1941 and encompassed a wide range of productions. His earliest stage credit was The Happy Marriage in 1909, followed by Just a Woman in 1914, Up the Ladder in 1922, The Nervous Wreck in 1923, and Twelve Miles Out in 1925. He appeared in Off-Key in 1927 and Mirrors in 1928, and took on the role in the musical Whoopee! as well. His later performing credits included Up Pops the Devil in 1930 and Mr. and Mrs. North in 1941. Beyond the stage, he acted in films during this period, including Anne of Green Gables in 1919.

The summer of 1928 marked a turning point in Hackett's career. While performing in summer stock at Denver's Elitch Theatre, he met Frances Goodrich, who showed him a script she had written called Such A Lady. The two rewrote it together, beginning a creative partnership that would define both their careers. Goodrich was at the time married to historian Hendrick Willem Van Loon; following their divorce in 1930, she and Hackett married in 1931. Shortly after their marriage, the couple relocated to Hollywood to adapt their stage success Up Pops the Devil into a screenplay for Paramount Pictures.

In 1933, Goodrich and Hackett signed a contract with MGM and remained with the studio until 1939. Among their first assignments was the screenplay for The Thin Man in 1934, based on the writing of Dashiell Hammett. Director W. S. Van Dyke encouraged them to use Hammett's work as a foundation while focusing on crafting witty dialogue for the central characters, Nick and Nora Charles, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. The film became one of the major hits of that year. The pair went on to write the screenplays for After the Thin Man in 1936 and Another Thin Man in 1939, as well as It's a Wonderful Life in 1946, Easter Parade in 1948, Father of the Bride in 1950, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1954, among other films.

As a Broadway writer, Hackett's credits include Up Pops the Devil in 1930, Everybody's Welcome in 1931, Bridal Wise in 1932, The Great Big Doorstep in 1942, and two productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, in 1955 and 1997. The Diary of Anne Frank brought Hackett and Goodrich their most prominent recognition: the play earned them a Tony Award for Best Play, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle award, all in 1956. Their screenplay work also earned four Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, for The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Father of the Bride, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The writing team additionally received Writers Guild of America awards for Easter Parade, Father's Little Dividend, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and The Diary of Anne Frank.

Following Goodrich's death in 1984, Hackett married Gisella Svetlik in 1985, a former dancer who had appeared in the original Broadway productions of Kiss Me, Kate, Carousel, Follow the Girls, Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'! and Paint Your Wagon. Svetlik had previously been married to theatrical agent and Emmy Award-winning writer Harvey Orkin. Hackett and Svetlik remained together until his death. Hackett died of pneumonia at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan on March 16, 1995.