Dates

• Existence: 1922-

Biography

Stewart Henry Stern was born in New York City in 1922. As the son of a physician and former film actress, he was introduced to the inner circle of the motion picture industry as a child. His uncle was the movie mogul Adolph Zukor and Stern spent summers on the Zukor estate with the likes of Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. In 1941, Stern left New York for Iowa. He came to the University of Iowa as an art major, later switching to speech and dramatic arts. He graduated in three years, magna cum laude. Serving in the 106th Infantry Division during WWII, Stern saw combat during the Battle of the Bulge. Listed as missing in action, he was hospitalized with frostbite. After the war, Stern worked briefly as an actor on Broadway before making his way west. His first job in Hollywood was that of dialogue director at the Eagle Lion Studios. Through his cousin, Arthur Loew, Jr., Stern met film director Fred Zinnemann. Zinnemann was to give Stern his first job as a screenwriter. Their first film together, Teresa, won an Academy Award nomination for Stern and co-writer Alfred Hayes. Another Zinnemann collaboration led to the writing of Benjy which won an Oscar as best short. These early successes led to such films as: Rebel Without a Cause; The Ugly American; Rachel, Rachel, and; Summer, Wishes, Winter Dreams and such television dramas as: And Crown Thy Good; Thunder of Silence, and; Sybil. Stern has repeatedly been nominated by the Motion Picture Academy, has won many awards issued by the Writers Guild of America, and in 1977 won an Emmy for his screenplay, Sybil.

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