[Deathwatch] Norman Panama, screenwriter, 88

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

U.S. Comedy Screenwriter Norman Panama Dies at 88
Sat Jan 25, 4:18 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Screenwriter Norman Panama, who with his
colleague Melvin Frank wrote classic Hollywood films such as "White
Christmas" and the hit Broadway musical "Li'l Abner," has died at age
88, family members said on Saturday.

Panama specialized in comedies and got his start along with his partner
writing for comedian Bob Hope in the late 1930s.

The team received three Oscar nominations for "Road to Utopia" starring
Hope and Bing Crosby, "Knock on Wood" featuring Danny Kaye and "The
Facts of Life" with Hope and Lucille Ball.

One of their best-known films was "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream
House," a 1948 adaptation of a novel starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy.


The pair also co-produced and co-directed many of their movies.

His daughter, Kathleen Panama, said her father, who died on Jan. 13 of
complications from Parkinson's disease, was as funny in real life as
the characters he created and was an accomplished piano player.

"You can't summarize a rich life in one sound bite," Panama told
Reuters. "He was a wonderful raconteur and joke teller."

Born in Chicago in 1914, Panama was a student at the University of
Chicago when he met classmate Frank and embarked on a partnership that
spanned nearly 30 years. The two parted amicably in 1966. Frank died in
1988.

While most of their movies were comedies, they also wrote the drama
"Above and Beyond" about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
They produced and co-wrote the Broadway and film versions based on the
Al Capp comic strip "Li'l Abner."