American writer
A.I. "Buzz" Bezzerides
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9e/A._I._Bezzerides.png/220px-A._I._Bezzerides.png) |
Born
| Albert Isaac Bezzerides
(
1908-08-09
)
August 9, 1908
Samsun
,
Ottoman Empire
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Died
| January 1, 2007
(2007-01-01)
(aged 98)
Los Angeles
,
California
, U.S.
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Occupation
| Novelist, screenwriter
|
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Albert Isaac "Buzz" Bezzerides
(
buh ZER uh deez
[1]
August 9, 1908 ? January 1, 2007) was an American
novelist
and
screenwriter
, best known for writing
films noir
and action
motion pictures
, especially several of Warners' "social conscience" films of the 1940s.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Bezzerides was born in
Samsun
,
Ottoman Turkey
, to a
Greek
father and an
Armenian
mother, who emigrated to America before he was two years old.
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
His father worked in farm fields before becoming a trucker hauling produce.
[8]
Bezzerides resided in
Rudolph Schindler's
Van Dekker
House,
Woodland Hills, California
.
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
From the late 1940s on, Bezzerides' companion was
Silvia Richards
, a screenwriter.
[13]
Bezzerides died at the
Motion Picture & Television Hospital
in Woodland Hills.
[14]
Career
[
edit
]
Bezzerides began writing short stories as a student at the
University of California, Berkeley
, where he studied
electrical engineering
. He was first published in a 1935 issue of
Story Magazine
, which printed his story, "Passage Into Eternity." He wrote the 1938
novel
The Long Haul
, about the trucking business. In 1940,
Warner Bros.
offered him $2,000 for movie rights to the story. He learned later that the script based on the book had already been written by others. The resulting film,
They Drive By Night
, starring
Humphrey Bogart
and
George Raft
, was a critical and commercial hit.
The studio also offered Bezzerides a contract to be a screenwriter at a salary of $300 a week. At the time, he was working as a communications engineer for the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
. He later commented, "I had no idea whether it was guilt or conscience, or greed to swindle more stories out of me, that motivated Warner Bros. to offer me a seven-year contract ... Whatever their reason, I grabbed their offer so I could quit my putrid career as a communications engineer by becoming a writer, writing scripts in an entirely new world.. His first screenplay was for 1942's
Juke Girl
, which starred
Ann Sheridan
and
Ronald Reagan
.
[15]
Films based on his novels or screenplays included
Desert Fury
(1947),
Thieves' Highway
(1949),
On Dangerous Ground
(1952),
Beneath the 12 Mile Reef
(1953) and
Track of the Cat
(1954). He wrote the screenplay for the 1962 espionage thriller
The Angry Hills
, which was set in Nazi-occupied Greece during World War II and based on a novel by Leon Uris. He wrote prolifically for television in the 1950s and '60s and was a co-creator of the Western television series
The Big Valley
.
[16]
Bezzerides' script for
Kiss Me Deadly
(1955) transformed the novel by
Mickey Spillane
into an apocalyptic, atomic-age paranoia film noir. When asked about his script, and his decision to make "the great whatsit" the
Pandora's Box
objective of a ruthless cast of characters, Bezzerides commented: "People ask me about the hidden meanings in the script, about the
A-bomb
, about
McCarthyism
, what does the poetry mean, and so on. And I can only say that I didn't think about it when I wrote it . . . I was having fun with it. I wanted to make every scene, every character, interesting. A girl comes up to
Ralph Meeker
, I make her a nympho. She grabs him and kisses him the first time she sees him. She says, "You don't taste like anybody I know." I'm a big car nut, so I put in all that stuff with the cars and the mechanic. I was an engineer, and I gave the detective the first phone answering machine in that picture. I was having fun."
[17]
Novels
[
edit
]
Legacy
[
edit
]
- The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides
, 2005
[18]
- Buzz
2006
[18]
Further reading
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"The Long Haul" (2005) film documentary
- ^
Bergan, Ronald (6 February 2007).
"AI Bezzerides"
.
The Guardian
.
Archived
from the original on 2014-10-02
. Retrieved
2021-08-15
.
On camera, AI (Albert Isaac) Bezzerides, who has died aged 98, recalled his Armenian mother and Greek father ...
- ^
Martin, Douglas (14 January 2007).
"Obituary: A.I. Bezzerides, writer of world-weary heroes - Americas - International Herald Tribune"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
Martin, Douglas (14 January 2007).
"A. I. Bezzerides, 98, Creator of World-Weary Characters, Dies"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"Screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides dies at 98 - UPI.com"
.
UPI
. 2007-01-09
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"Novelist/screenwriter Bezzerides dies"
.
East Bay Times
. AP. 15 January 2007
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
Bergan, Ronald (6 February 2007).
"AI Bezzerides"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"A.I. Bezzerides, 98: Film screenwriter"
.
Toronto Star
. 15 January 2007
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"Home"
.
Van Dekker House
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"Van Dekker House"
.
Los Angeles Conservancy
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"
'Hidden gem' house by R.M. Schindler in Woodland Hills restored"
.
Daily News
. 24 November 2015
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"the-story"
.
vandekkerhouse
. Archived from
the original
on 5 July 2023
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
Smith, Imogen Sara.
"People and Places of Scoundrels & Spitballers"
.
The Criterion Collection
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
McLellan, Dennis (9 January 2007).
"A.I. Bezzerides, 98; novelist became a screenwriter known for film noir classics"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"A.I. Bezzerides"
.
inquirer.com
. 15 January 2007
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
"
"Big Valley" en route to big screen"
.
Reuters
. 14 July 2009
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
- ^
The Independent, A.I. Bezzerides, No-nonsense novelist/screenwriter,
"A. I. Bezzerides - Independent Online Edition > Obituaries"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-01
. Retrieved
2007-04-09
.
- ^
a
b
"A.I. Bezzerides"
.
Variety
. 10 January 2007
. Retrieved
5 July
2023
.
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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People
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Other
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