Delmer Daves

Born in San Francisco, Delmer Daves first pursued a career as a lawyer. While attending Stanford University, he became interested in the burgeoning film industry, first working as a prop boy on the western The Covered Wagon (1923), directed by James Cruze and serving as a technical advisor on a number of films.[4]

After finishing his education in law, he continued his career in Hollywood.

After moving to Hollywood in 1928, he became a screenwriter at MGM, his first credit being the early sound comedy film So This Is College (1929), directed by Sam Wood. It was the film debut of Robert Montgomery.

Daves also moonlighted as an actor making small appearances in films like The Night Flyer (1928) (produced by Cruze), Three Sinners (1928), and several films directed by Cruze: The Mating Call (1928), Excess Baggage (1928), The Duke Steps Out (1929), and A Man's Man (1929), as well as So This Is College (1929), which he wrote.[4]

Daves appeared in The Bishop Murder Case (1930) and Good News (1930).

He wrote and appeared in Shipmates (1931) and Divorce in the Family (1931) and worked uncredited on Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931) and Slim (1931).

Daves then focused on writing, working on scripts for Clear All Wires! (1933) at MGM, and No More Women (1934) at Paramount.

Daves signed a contract at Warner Bros. where he initially wrote musicals: Dames (1934) and Flirtation Walk (1934). He followed this with Stranded (1935), Page Miss Glory (1935, for Cosmopolitan Pictures), Shipmates Forever (1935), and Miss Pacific Fleet (1935).

Daves' first really significant credit as screenwriter was The Petrified Forest (1936) adapted from the play by Robert E. Sherwood. He wrote The Go Getter (1937), The Singing Marine (1937), She Married an Artist (1938) (over at Columbia) and Professor Beware (1938) for Harold Lloyd at Paramount Pictures. He worked uncredited on Slim (1937).

Daves had a big critical and commercial success with Love Affair (1939) for RKO. (Almost twenty years later, Leo McCarey, director of Love Affair, was responsible for the nearly identical An Affair to Remember (1957) using Daves' script.)

He was very much in demand as a writer, his credits including two films at Paramount, $1000 a Touchdown (1939) and The Farmer's Daughter (1940). He did It All Came True (1940) at Warners and Safari (1940) at Paramount.

Daves wrote a propaganda short, Young America Flies (1940) then did Unexpected Uncle (1941) at RKO, The Night of January 16th (1941) at Paramount, and You Were Never Lovelier (1942) at Columbia. He also helped write Stage Door Canteen (1943), a huge hit for Warners.

Daves made his directorial debut in the Cary Grant wartime adventure Destination Tokyo (1943).[5]

He followed it with The Very Thought of You (1944), Hollywood Canteen (1944), and Pride of the Marines (1945). All these films were very successful commercially.[6]

Daves was a writer only on Ladies' Man (1947). He wrote and directed The Red House (1947) for Sol Lesser at United Artists.

Back at Warners he wrote and directed Dark Passage (1947),[7] which utilized a first-person approach and starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. He directed Richard Brooks' script in To the Victor (1948), directed A Kiss in the Dark (1949) and wrote and directed Task Force (1949) with Gary Cooper.

In February 1949, Daves signed a long-term contract at 20th Century Fox.[8] He directed the critically acclaimed Broken Arrow (1950) at 20th Century Fox, which made a star of Jeff Chandler.[7][9]

He wrote and directed Bird of Paradise (1951) at Fox; directed Return of the Texan (1952); and wrote and directed Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953) at Fox.[7] As director, he only did Never Let Me Go (1953) at MGM and Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) under contract.

He returned to Warners to write, produce and directed Drum Beat (1954) with Alan Ladd, for Ladd's company.[10]

Daves was a writer only on White Feather (1955) for Fox. He wrote and directed Jubal (1956) at Columbia and The Last Wagon (1956) at Fox.[5]

He directed two films at Columbia, 3:10 to Yuma (1957) at Columbia and Cowboy (1958). Daves garnered a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for his work on Cowboy.

He also directed Kings Go Forth (1958) for United Artists, The Badlanders (1958) with Ladd at MGM and The Hanging Tree (1959).

Daves wrote, produced and directed a series of films with Troy Donahue at Warners: A Summer Place (1959), Parrish (1961), Susan Slade (1961) and Rome Adventure (1962).

Daves final films were all at Warners Spencer's Mountain (1963), Youngblood Hawke (1964) and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965). Spencer's Mountain (1963), which he wrote, directed, and produced, based upon Earl Hamner Jr's autobiographical novel of the same name, and served as the basis for the later television series The Waltons.[11]

Daves was married to actress Mary Lawrence from 1938 until he died on August 17, 1977.

He is interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.