Fearless Oscar-nominated writer
ONE of Hollywood’s finest screenwriters, Harriet Frank Jr scripted epic scenes for countless movie stars, notably Paul Newman.
With her husband Irving Ravetch Frank wrote Hud, a western which starred Newman, Melvyn Douglas and Patricia Neal.The couple were astonished to see it become a box office smash in 1963.
When the film was nominated for best screenplay, Frank shunned the Oscar ceremony in favour of a holiday to Paris.The film scooped three Oscars but was pipped at the post by John Osborne for his screenplay for Tom Jones.
In 1967 Newman starred in Hombre, the story of a white man raised by Apaches on a reservation, which was another thoughtprovoking success from the couple.
Frank and Ravetch tackled racism head on in their powerful 1974 drama Conrack. It starred JonVoight as a South Carolina teacher who strives to help his largely illiterate black students.The couple’s home in Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, was crammed with books and works of art Frank had collected, mostly from European countries.
Born during the Depression in Portland, Oregon, Harriet Goldstein was the daughter of shoe shop owner Sam Goldstein and his wife Edith, host of a local radio show.
In 1939 Edith moved the family to Hollywood and changed her name to Harriet Frank Sr. She persuaded Louis B Mayer to take her on as a story editor and Harriet Jr followed in her footsteps and while at MGM she met Ravetch whom she married in 1946.
She later worked forWarner Brothers, scripting Silver River, a 1948 film starring Errol Flynn.
Her first joint screenplay with her husband was the 1957 classic, The Long, Hot Summer, starring OrsonWelles and Paul Newman.