Ben Hecht

(1894 - 1964)

Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Jewish immigrant parents from Belarus and Ukraine, Ben Hecht wrote novels, journalism, memoirs, and, most famously, screenplays and plays—including The Front Page, Notorious, and Wuthering Heights—during his career. “Once when I was a guest on a radio quiz show,” he wrote in his autobiography, “the plot of a movie I had written before and that was playing on Broadway then was recited to me in full. I was unable to identify it. For many years Hollywood held this double lure for me, tremendous sums of money for work that required no more effort than a game of pinochle.”