Richard Sale

A fourth-generation New Yorker, Richard Sale sold his first magazine story at age 12. After his graduation from Washington & Lee University, Sale went "pro," eventually writing well over 450 novels, novellettes, and short stories. During WWII, he served as Navy correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post. He wrote his first Hollywood screenplay in 1946, and directed his first film in 1947. Most closely associated with 20th Century Fox in the 1950s, he directed such entertainments as Ticket to Tomahawk (1950), Half Angel (1950), Let's Make It Legal, and My Wife's Best Friend (1952). He also kept his hand in screenwriting, notably as the author of the tense Frank Sinatra thriller Suddenly, in addition, he wrote the script, music, and lyrics for the 1955 musical Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955). Most of his later directorial efforts were unremarkable, save for the fact-based Abandon Ship! (1957). In collaboration with his former wife, Mary Loos, Sale scripted such comedies as Mother Was a Freshman and Father Was a Fullback (both 1949), and co-wrote several episodes of the TV Western Yancy Derringer (1959-1960). Many of Richard Sale's best novels -- The Oscar, The White Buffalo -- were brought to the screen by other scriptwriting hands.