William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 - April 25, 1982), often credited as W. R. Burnett, was an American novelist and screenwriter. is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (116th in leap years). ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ...

Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio. He left his civil service job there to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over a hundred short stories and five novels, all unpublished. In Chicago he found a job as a night-clerk in a seedy hotel. Suddenly Burnett found himself associating with a cornucopia of characters straight from the mean streets—prize-fighters, hoodlums, hustlers and hobos. They inspired Little Caesar (novel 1929, film 1931) - its overnight success landed him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. Little Caesar became a classic movie, produced by First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) and starring the then-unknown Edward G. Robinson. The Al Capone theme was one he returned to in 1932 with Scarface. In addition to this, Burnett had won the 1930 O. Henry Award for his short story "Dressing-Up" published in Harper's Magazine in November 1929. Springfield is the county seat of Clark County in the State of Ohio. ... Little Caesar is a 1931 crime film made during the Pre-Code era which tells the story of a man who works his way up the ranks of the mob until he reaches its upper heights. ... American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. ... The First National Exhibitors Circuit was founded 1917 by the merger of 26 of the biggest First Run cinema chains in the United States of America, controlling more than 600 cinemas, more than 200 of them were First Run cinemas. ... Warner Bros. ... Edward Goldenberg Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg, Yiddish: עמנואל גולדנברג; December 12, 1893 – January 26, 1973) was an American stage and film actor of Romanian origin. ... Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 - January 25, 1947), popularly known as Scarface Al Capone, was an American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to the illegal trafficking of alcoholic beverages during the time of prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. ... Scarface (also known as Scarface, the Shame of the Nation and The Shame of a Nation) is a 1932 gangster film of the Pre-Code era which tells the story of gang warfare and police intervention when rival gangs fight over control of a city. ... The O. Henry Awards are yearly prizes given to short stories of exceptional merit. ... An issue of Harpers Magazine from 1905 Another issue, from November 2004 Harpers Magazine (or simply Harpers) is a monthly general-interest magazine covering literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts from a progressive, moderate left perspective in a fashion often not found in the ordinary news...

Burnett kept busy, producing a novel or more a year and turning most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Thematically Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain but his contrasting of the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for, represented by the paradise of the pastoral, was fresh and original. He portrayed characters who have, for one reason or another, fallen into a life of crime. Once sucked into this life they have been unable to climb out. They typically get one last shot at salvation but the oppressive system closes in and denies redemption. Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. ... James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892 – October 27, 1977) was an American journalist and novelist. ...

Burnett's characters exist in world of twilight morality—virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all, all of his characters were human—and this could be their undoing. In High Sierra (1941), Humphrey Bogart plays Roy Earle, a hard-bitten criminal who rejects his life of crime to help a crippled girl. In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the most perfectly-masterminded plot falls apart as each character reveals a weakness. In The Beast of the City (1932), the police take the law into their own hands when the criminals walk free on a legal loophole, presaging Dirty Harry by almost 40 years. High Sierra (1941) is an early film noir written by John Huston and W.R. Burnett from the novel by W.R. Burnett. ... Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an American actor. ... The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 film noir directed by John Huston. ... The Beast of the City is a 1932 pre-Code gangster movie featuring cops as vigilantes, predating Dirty Harry by almost 40 years and known for its singularly vicious ending. ... Dirty Harry is a 1971 film directed by Don Siegel, the first of the series. ...

Burnett worked with many of the greats in acting and directing, including John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray and Michael Cimino, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Paul Muni, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. He received an Oscar nomination for his scripts for Wake Island (1942) and The Great Escape (1963). In addition to his film work he wrote scripts for television and radio. In later years with his vision declining he stopped writing and turned to promoting his earlier work. In his career he achieved huge popularity in Europe, where his anti-hero ideology was enthusiastically embraced. John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... John Ford (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973) was an American film director famous for westerns such as Stagecoach and The Searchers and adaptations of such classic 20th century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath. ... Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911–June 16, 1979) was an American film director. ... Michael Cimino (born February 3, 1939, New York City) is an American film director. ... Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an American actor. ... Lupino in 1979 Ida Lupino (February 4, 1918 – August 3, 1995) was a film actress, director, and a pioneer in the field of women filmmakers. ... Paul Muni photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 Paul Muni (September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967) was an Academy Award-winning versatile actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund to a Jewish family in Lwow, Galicja, an ethnically Polish part of the then-Austro-Hungarian Empire... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American jazz oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor. ... Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962), was a Golden Globe Award-winning American actress, singer, model and pop icon. ... Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an Academy Award-nominated American movie actor, nicknamed The King of Cool.[1] He was one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to a popular anti-hero persona. ... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... // The Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. ... The Great Escape, written by James Clavell, W.R. Burnett, and Walter Newman (uncredited), and directed by John Sturges is a popular 1963 World War II film, based on a true story about Allied prisoners of war with a record for escaping from German prisoner-of-war camps. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ...

On his death in 1982, Burnett was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Gates of Forest Lawn Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a cemetery in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. ... Nickname: The Jewel City Location of Glendale within Los Angeles County and the State of California. ...

External links

• William R. Burnett at the Internet Movie Database
• W.R. Burnett bibliography