Herman J. Mankiewicz

Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and book writer whose Broadway credits included The Good Fellow, The Wild Man of Borneo, and Blessed Event. Born in New York City, he is best known for co-writing the screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941) with Orson Welles, a collaboration that earned both men the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Mankiewicz's family, of German-Jewish immigrant background, relocated from New York to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where his father Franz took a teaching position. His brother, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, was born there in 1909, and both boys, along with a sister named Erna, grew up in Wilkes-Barre. The family returned to New York City in 1913, where Franz accepted a position at Stuyvesant High School. Herman graduated from Columbia College in 1917, having served as "Off-Hour" editor of the Columbia Spectator.

Following graduation, Mankiewicz worked as managing editor of the American Jewish Chronicle and as a reporter at the New York Tribune before enlisting with the Marines, A.E.F. as a private first class, having been unable to fly planes with the Army Air Service due to airsickness. From 1919 to 1920, he directed the American Red Cross News Service in Paris. After returning to the United States, he married Sara Aaronson of Baltimore and brought her to Berlin, where he worked as a newspaper writer from 1920 to 1922, also serving as a correspondent for Women's Wear Daily during that period. While in Berlin, he contributed pieces on drama and books to The New York Times and was hired by dancer Isadora Duncan as her publicist in preparation for her American return tour. He later did political reporting for George Seldes at the Chicago Tribune before taking a position as a reporter for the New York World.

Back in New York, Mankiewicz contributed to Vanity Fair, The Saturday Evening Post, and other publications. From 1923 to 1926, he served as assistant theater editor at The New York Times under George S. Kaufman, and subsequently became the first regular drama critic at The New Yorker, writing a column during 1925 and early 1926. He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table. During this period he collaborated with Kaufman on the play The Good Fellow and with Marc Connelly on The Wild Man of Borneo, which appeared on Broadway in 1927. He also collaborated with Heywood Broun, Dorothy Parker, Robert E. Sherwood, and others on a theatrical revue. His Broadway work extended to the play Blessed Event, with his Broadway activity documented as late as 1932.

Film producer Walter Wanger took notice of Mankiewicz's writing and offered him a contract at Paramount, prompting his move to Hollywood. Paramount paid him $400 a week plus bonuses, and by the end of 1927 he headed the studio's scenario department. In that role he recruited writers from New York newspaper backgrounds, including Ben Hecht, Bartlett Cormack, and Edwin Justus Mayer. In 1927 and 1928, he wrote titles for at least twenty-five films featuring stars such as Clara Bow, Bebe Daniels, Nancy Carroll, and Wallace Beery. With the arrival of sound, he wrote the script and dialogue for The Dummy in 1929 and contributed to films directed by William Wellman and Josef von Sternberg, among others.

Between 1929 and 1935, Mankiewicz worked on at least twenty films, receiving no credit on many of them. Between 1930 and 1932, he served as producer or associate producer on four comedies — Laughter, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Million Dollar Legs — and contributed to their screenplays without credit. His credited filmography included Man of the World, Dinner at Eight, The Pride of the Yankees, The Pride of St. Louis, and The Wizard of Oz, in addition to Citizen Kane. He and Sara had three children: screenwriter Don Mankiewicz (1922–2015), political adviser Frank Mankiewicz (1924–2014), and novelist Johanna Mankiewicz Davis (1937–1974).

Nearly seventy years after his death, Mankiewicz was portrayed by actor Gary Oldman in the 2020 film Mank, which won the Academy Award.