Wendell Mayes

Wendell Curran Mayes (July 21, 1919 – March 28, 1992) was an American screenwriter whose career spanned across four decades. His notable credits include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Advise & Consent (1962), and Death Wish (1974).

Wendell Mayes
Mayes in 1955
Born	(1919-07-21)July 21, 1919 Hayti, Missouri, U.S.
Died	March 28, 1992(1992-03-28) (aged 72) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Screenwriter
Spouse	Phyllis Manning ​ (m. 1949)​

Background

Wendell Curran Mayes was born on July 21, 1919, in Hayti, Missouri. His father, Von Mayes, was a lawyer and state legislator,^[1] and his mother, Irene (née Haynes), was a teacher. Wendell attended primary school in Caruthersville, Missouri; Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee;^[2] and Central College in Fayette, Missouri.^[3] He had one year of law school at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Career

Mayes moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a filing clerk in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, then to New York, where he worked in the theater. Subsequently, he was an exterminator and gold prospector in Arizona, a truck driver in Texas. During World War II he worked as a welder in a Baltimore shipyard, and joined the Navy as a petty officer shipbuilder. In 1945 he was discharged from the Navy and moved back to New York.^[4]

Screenwriter

Mayes began as an actor, then turned to writing.^[5] An episode No Riders that he wrote for Pond's Theater received a good review in a Los Angeles newspaper and Billy Wilder hired him to work on the script to the film The Spirit of St. Louis.^[6]

For Anatomy of a Murder, Mayes received a New York Film Critics Circle Award for best screenplay in 1959 and an Oscar nomination in 1960. It is claimed to be one of the best trial movies of all time.

Personal life and death

Wendell Mayes was married to the former Phyllis Manning.^[7] He died from bone cancer on March 28, 1992, at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.^[8] His last script was the television film Criminal Behavior, which starred Farrah Fawcett, and aired in May 1992.^[7][9]

Works

Screenwriting credits include:

• The Spirit of St. Louis (with Billy Wilder and Charles Lederer), Warner Brothers, 1957
• The Enemy Below, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957
• The Way to the Gold, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957
• From Hell to Texas (also known as Manhunt) (with Robert Buckner), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1958
• The Hunters, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1958
• The Hanging Tree (with Halsted Welles), Warner Brothers, 1959
• Anatomy of a Murder, Columbia, 1959
• North to Alaska (with John Lee Mahin, Martin Rackin, and Claude Binyon), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1960
• Advise and Consent, Columbia, 1962
• Von Ryan's Express (with Joseph Landon), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1965
• In Harm's Way, Paramount, 1965
• Hotel, Warner Brothers, 1967
• The Stalking Moon (with Alvin Sargent), National General Pictures,1968
• The Revengers, National General Pictures, 1972
• The Poseidon Adventure (with Stirling Silliphant), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1972
• Death Wish, Paramount, 1974
• Bank Shot, United Artists, 1974
• Go Tell the Spartans, Avco-Embassy, 1978
• Love and Bullets (with John Melson), Associated Film Distribution,1979
• Monsignor, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1982