Irving Brecher

Bronx native Irving Brecher was only 25 years old when he became the only screenwriter to ever enjoy sole credit on a Marx Brothers film, with 1939's At the Circus. He penned another script for the brothers the following year with Go West, and continued to work as a screenwriter for MGM throughout the '40s, while the studio system was at its peak and the golden age of Hollywood was in full swing. Brecher wrote and co-wrote such titles as Shadow of the Thin Man and Meet Me in St. Louis during this time -- the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination -- but even when he slowed down in the '50s and early '60s, the veteran writer with the biting wit continued to create top-tier material, writing Somebody Loves Me in 1952 and the iconic pilot for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959. For his last script, Brecher adapted the satiristic musical Bye Bye Birdie for the screen in 1963. He then retired from show business, eventually writing a memoir detailing his experiences in Hollywood, including his encounters with Milton Berle, Judy Garland, and Fred Astaire. - Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide