Career and Later Life
A succession of limited-term contracts ensued, notably at Paramount Pictures where he worked on projects without ultimately receiving a writing credit. He then moved to Universal, where in 1944 he worked on his first credited feature script, Murder in the Blue Room. It was a year later, at Warner Brothers, that he achieved his first real success and consequent recognition with Never Say Goodbye in 1946. He worked at 20th Century Fox from 1951–55, eventually deciding to become independent.
In 1957 he began a collaborative relationship with Billy Wilder on the movie Love in the Afternoon. From there, the pair had a string of hits with Some Like It Hot; The Apartment (which won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay); One, Two, Three; Irma la Douce; the Oscar-nominated The Fortune Cookie; the sex comedy Kiss Me, Stupid; and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Diamond also had a hit with his 1969 solo adaptation of the play Cactus Flower into the movie of the same name.
In total, Diamond and Wilder wrote twelve movies together over 25 years. Some of these films feature characters engaged in never-ending but friendly squabbling, such as Joe and Jerry in Some Like it Hot and Holmes and Watson in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Diamond's widow claims that these characters were based on her husband's relationship with Wilder.
In 1980, Diamond and Wilder were given the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award for career achievement in screenwriting. Wilder had previously received the Laurel Award in 1957 for his screenwriting partnership with Charles Brackett.
Diamond died in Beverly Hills, California in 1988.
Read more about this topic: I. A. L. Diamond
Famous quotes containing the words career and/or life:
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my male career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my male pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (18971985)
“A womans whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world: it is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks her whole soul on the traffic of affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is hopelessfor it is a bankruptcy of the heart.”
—Washington Irving (17831859)