Eleanor Perry Biography

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Eleanor Perry (1914-1981) was an American writer known primarily for her screenplays.

She was born Eleanor Irene Rosenfeld in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. She attended Western Reserve University, where she wrote for the college's literary magazine. Together with her first husband, attorney Leo G. Bayer, she wrote a series of suspense novels, including Paper Chase (1942), which she adapted for the screen under the title Dangerous Partners in 1945. After earning a Masters degree in psychiatric social work, she began to write plays, enjoying Broadway success in 1958 with Third Best Sport, a collaboration with her husband. The two were divorced shortly after.

In 1960, she married aspiring film director Frank Perry, with whom she formed a long-lasting professional partnership. Their first film, the low-budget David and Lisa, for which she drew upon her psychiatric background, earned the couple Academy Award nominations for writing and direction. In 1966, she and Truman Capote adapted his novella, A Christmas Memory, for the anthology series ABC Stage 67, which earned her the first of two Emmy Awards. (The second was for The House Without a Christmas Tree in 1972).

Following her divorce from Frank in 1971, Eleanor struggled to find work in the film industry. She incorporated many of the problems she faced as a female sceenwriter in Hollywood into her 1979 novel, Blue Pages.

On March 14, 1981, she succumbed to cancer in New York City. Seventeen years after her death, she received screen credit yet again when her original screenplay of David and Lisa was refilmed for television.

Screenplays

• The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
  
• The Deadly Trap (1971)
  
• Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
  
• The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970)
  
• Last Summer (1969)
  
• The Swimmer (1968)
  
• Ladybug, Ladybug (1963)
  
• David and Lisa (1961)
  
• Dangerous Partners (1945)
  

Teleplays

• Oprah Winfrey Presents: David and Lisa (1998)
  
• The Thanksgiving Treasure (1973)
  
• The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972)
  
• The Thanksgiving Visitor (1967)
  
• A Christmas Memory for ABC Stage 67 (1966)
  

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