Wikipedia

W. R. Burnett

William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 – April 25, 1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies.[3][4]

W. R. Burnett
Burnett in 1935
Born
William Riley Burnett

(1899-11-25)November 25, 1899
Springfield, Ohio, U.S.
DiedApril 25, 1982(1982-04-25) (aged 82)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Resting place
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Years active1931–1972
Spouse(s)
Marjorie Louise Barstow
​
​
(m. 1920)​
[1]
Whitney Forbes Johnston
​
​
(m. 1943)​
[2]
ChildrenJames, William

Early life

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Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio, and attended Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio.[4] He left his civil service job in Springfield to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over 100 short stories and five novels, all unpublished.[5]

Writing career

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In Chicago, Burnett found a job as a night clerk in the Northmere Hotel.[6] His experiences with the people at the hotel, including gangsters, inspired Little Caesar (novel 1929, film 1931).[7][6] The novel's overnight success landed him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter.[6] Little Caesar became a classic movie, produced by First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) and starring then little known Edward G. Robinson.[4]

Burnett was hired by Howard Hughes to write a draft of Scarface although director Howard Hawks disliked it and the script was rewritten by established playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht.[8][6]

He won the 1930 O. Henry Award for his short story "Dressing-Up", published in Harper's in November 1929.[9] In 1980, he won the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award.[7][6]

Burnett published a novel or more a year and turned most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett[7] and James M. Cain,[10] who all wrote in the hardboiled genre of fiction.[11] He often contrasted the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for.[7] He portrayed characters who, for one reason or another, fell into a life of crime and were unable to climb out.[12] They typically get one last shot at salvation but the oppressive system closes in and denies redemption.[7]

Film work

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Burnett wrote for many actors and directors, including Raoul Walsh,[13] John Huston,[13] John Ford,[14] Howard Hawks,[6] Nicholas Ray,[15] Douglas Sirk,[16] Michael Cimino, Humphrey Bogart,[13] Ida Lupino,[17] Paul Muni,[18] Frank Sinatra,[19] Steve McQueen,[20] and Clint Eastwood.[citation needed] He received an Oscar nomination for his script for Wake Island (1942)[4] and a Writers Guild nomination for his script for The Great Escape.[21] In addition to his film work, he also wrote scripts for television[22] and radio.[citation needed]

In High Sierra (1941), Humphrey Bogart plays Roy Earle, a hard-bitten criminal who rejects his life of crime to marry a crippled girl.[13] In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the most perfectly masterminded plot falls apart as each character reveals a weakness.[23] In The Beast of the City (1932) starring Walter Huston, the police take the law into their own hands when the criminals walk free due to legal incompetence.[24]

Burnett was called back by Howard Hughes to work on Vendetta.[25]

Later years

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In later years, with his vision declining, he stopped writing and turned to promoting his earlier work.[citation needed] On his death in 1982, in Santa Monica, California, Burnett was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[4][26]

Critical reception

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Heywood Broun described Burnett's novel Goodbye to the Past as "written with all the excitement of Little Caesar, and ten times the skill".[27]

Works

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Novels

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  • Little Caesar (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1929)[28]
  • Iron Man (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1930)[29]
  • Saint Johnson (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1930)[7]
  • The Silver Eagle (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1931)[28]
  • The Beast of the City (Grosset & Dunlap - 1932) [not properly a Burnett novel; credit on the book reads "novelized by Jack Lait, from the screen story by W.R. Burnett"; the book was published concurrently with the release of the M-G-M film, circa March 1932][30]
  • The Giant Swing (Harper - 1932)[7]
  • Dark Hazard (Harper - 1933)[28]
  • Goodbye to the Past: Scenes from the Life of William Meadows (Harper - 1934)[7]
  • The Goodhues of Sinking Creek (Harper - 1934)[28]
  • Dr. Socrates (O'Bryan House Publishing LLC - 2007) [Originally serialized in Colliers Weekly Magazine in 1935][7]
  • King Cole (Harper - 1936)[7]
  • The Dark Command: A Kansas Iliad (Knopf - 1938)[7]
  • High Sierra (Knopf - 1941)[28]
  • The Quick Brown Fox (Knopf - 1943)[28]
  • Nobody Lives Forever (Knopf - 1943)[28]
  • Tomorrow's Another Day (Knopf - 1946)[28]
  • Romelle (Knopf - 1947)[28]
  • The Asphalt Jungle (Knopf - 1949)[28]
  • Stretch Dawson (Gold Medal - 1950) - The film Yellow Sky (1948) was based on an early version of the novel[7]
  • Little Men, Big World (Knopf - 1952)[28]
  • Adobe Walls: A Novel of the Last Apache Rising (Knopf - 1953)[31]
  • Vanity Row (Knopf - 1952)[28]
  • Big Stan (Gold Medal - 1953) - written under pseudonym "John Monahan"
  • Captain Lightfoot (Knopf - 1954)[32]
  • It's Always Four O'Clock (Random House - 1956) - written under pseudonym "James Updyke"[7]
  • Pale Moon (Knopf - 1956)[33]
  • Underdog (Knopf - 1957)[28]
  • Bitter Ground (Knopf - 1958)
  • Mi Amigo: A Novel of the Southwest (Knopf - 1959)[34]
  • Conant (Popular Library - 1961)[28]
  • Round the Clock at Volari's (Gold Medal - 1961)[28]
  • The Goldseekers (Doubleday - 1962)[35]
  • The Widow Barony (Macdonald - 1962)[28]
  • The Abilene Samson (Pocket Books - 1963)[28]
  • Sergeants 3 (Pocket Books - 1963)[36]
  • The Roar of the Crowd: Conversations with an Ex-Big-Leaguer (C.N. Potter - 1964)[37]
  • The Winning of Mickey Free (Bantam Pathfinder - 1965)[7]
  • The Cool Man (Gold Medal - 1968)[28]
  • Good-bye, Chicago: 1928: End of an Era (St. Martin's - 1981)[28]

Short stories

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  • "Round Trip" (1929)
  • "Dressing-Up" (1930)[38]
  • "Traveling Light" (1935)
  • "Vanishing Act" (1955)

Filmography

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This list includes both works scripted or co-scripted by Burnett, as well as adaptations of his novels and short stories.

Notes

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  • McGilligan, Patrick; Mate, Ken (1986). "W.R. Burnett: The Outsider". In McGilligan, Patrick (ed.). Backstory : interviews with screenwriters of Hollywood's golden age. University of California press. p. 49-84.

References

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  1. ↑ Franklin County, Ohio, Marriage Records, vol. 1918–1922, p. 604
  2. ↑ Fowler, Glenn (April 29, 1982). "W. R. Burnet, 82, The Author oF Little Caesar and 40 Films". New York Times. p. D23.
  3. ↑ "NEW GANG FILM AT STRAND.; "Little Caesar" Notable for Acting of Edward G. Robinson". The New York Times. 1931-01-10. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-13.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Fowler, Glenn (1982-04-29). "W.R. BURNET, 82, THE AUTHOR OF 'LITTLE CAESAR' AND 40 FILMS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-13.
  5. ↑ McGilligan & Mate pp 56-57
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jakubowski, Maxim (2000-06-23). "'You're born, you're gonna have trouble, you're gonna die'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ""Pretty Big Once": W. R. Burnett's Cynical Americana". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2022-08-12. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  8. ↑ Mate & McGilligan p 60
  9. ↑ "Two writers in the tie for O. Henry Award; W.R. Burnett and William M. John Share $500 Prize for Best Magazine Story in 1929". The New York Times. 1930-11-07. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-06-03. Retrieved 2026-05-13.
  10. ↑ Penzler, Otto (2018-05-08). "What Is a Hard-Boiled Novel?". CrimeReads. Retrieved 2026-03-23.
  11. ↑ "Dashiell Hammett". Britannica. Retrieved May 20, 2026.
  12. ↑ "W. R. Burnett's "High Sierra" and Other New Works of Fiction; In Prague". The New York Times. 1940-03-10. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Crowther, Bosley (1941-01-25). "THE SCREEN; 'High Sierra,' at the Strand, Considers the Tragic and Dramatic Plight of the Last Gangster". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  14. ↑ "The Whole Town's Talking". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  15. ↑ "The Racket (1951)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  16. ↑ "Captain Lightfoot | Cast and Crew | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  17. ↑ "High Sierra | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  18. ↑ "Dr. Socrates". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  19. ↑ "Sergeants 3". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  20. ↑ "The Great Escape". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  21. ↑ "The Critics' Corner - The Great Escape - The Critics Corner: THE GREAT ESCAPE". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  22. ↑ "W. R. Burnett | Literature and Writing | Research Starters | EBSCO Research". EBSCO. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  23. ↑ "The Asphalt Jungle | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  24. ↑ "The Beast of the City | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  25. ↑ "Vendetta (1950) | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  26. ↑ "Milestones: May 10, 1982". Time. Time Inc. May 10, 1982. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  27. ↑ Advertisement for "Goodbye to the Past", The American Mercury, November 1934, (p. 225).
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "W R Burnett". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
  29. ↑ "'It's Always Four O'Clock' and 'Iron Man' by W.R. Burnett". Los Angeles Times. 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  30. ↑ "Populist Fables: Law and Order and The Beast of the City". FilmInt.nu. 2022-02-14. Retrieved 2026-05-23.
  31. ↑ Duffus, R. L. (1953-08-16). "The Apache Country; ADOBE WALLS. A novel of the last Apache Rising. By W. R. Burnett. 279 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $3". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  32. ↑ W.R. Burnett (1954). Captain Lightfoot. Internet Archive. New York Alfred A. KNopf.
  33. ↑ "PALE MOON". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2026-05-23.
  34. ↑ W.R. Burnett (1959). Mi Amigo. Internet Archive. Macdonald & Co. LTD.
  35. ↑ "THE GOLDSEEKERS". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2026-05-23.
  36. ↑ "Books Today". The New York Times. 1962-03-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-23.
  37. ↑ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2026-05-23.
  38. ↑ "Dressing-Up by W.R. Burnett (Summary) - Writing Atlas". writingatlas.com. Retrieved 2026-05-23.
  39. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 "W. R. Burnett". AFI Catalog. Retrieved 2026-05-13.
  40. ↑ "The Westerner (1940) - Official Site - Miramax". www.miramax.com. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  41. ↑ "Dance Hall (1941)". AFI Catalog. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  42. ↑ "Dr. Socrates". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  43. ↑ "The Man I Love". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  44. ↑ "Colorado Territory (1949) | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  45. ↑ "Iron Man (1951)". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  46. ↑ "Law and Order | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  47. ↑ Staff, Variety (1953-01-01). "Arrowhead". Variety. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  48. ↑ Night People (1954) | MUBI. Retrieved 2026-05-22 – via mubi.com.
  49. ↑ "Short Cut to Hell". Variety. 1957-01-01. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  50. 1 2 3 "The Asphalt Jungle (1950)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  51. ↑ "The Asphalt Jungle". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  52. ↑ The Lawbreakers (1961) | MUBI. Retrieved 2026-05-22 – via mubi.com.
  53. ↑ "4 for Texas". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  54. ↑ Nieporent, Ben. "Movie Review - Jackals, The - eFilmCritic". www.efilmcritic.com. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  55. ↑ "Ice Station Zebra". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
  56. ↑ Stiletto (1969) | MUBI. Retrieved 2026-05-22 – via mubi.com.
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