[Deathwatch] George Axelrod, Playwright, 81

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

'Seven Year Itch' writer Axelrod dead
Monday, June 23, 2003 Posted: 10:15 AM EDT (1415 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/23/obit.axelrod.ap/index.html


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Playwright George Axelrod, who
anticipated the sexual revolution with "The Seven Year Itch" and "Will
Success Spoil Rock Hunter" and later wrote screenplays for such films
as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "The Manchurian Candidate," died
Saturday. He was 81. 

Axelrod died in his sleep of heart failure, said his daughter, Nina
Axelrod. 

"He ended his life very peacefully in his home overlooking Los
Angeles," she said. "He was very happy." 

A radio and television writer, Axelrod hit the jackpot in 1952 with
"The Seven Year Itch." It was a laugh-filled play about a man whose
wife and children had gone to the country, and who pursues the luscious
young beauty who lives above his apartment. 

The play lasted almost three years on Broadway and was filmed by 20th
Century Fox as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, with Tom Ewell repeating
his role in the play. The movie was a box-office hit, aided by the
classic photo of Monroe's skirt being blown into the air. 

Axelrod, who collaborated with Billy Wilder on the script, declared in
1955 "we didn't make a very good picture." The industry censor forbade
the sexual innuendo contained in the play and would not allow the two
characters to sleep together. 

His next play, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" a satire on Hollywood,
lasted more than a year on Broadway and was also filmed by Fox, with
Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield as stars. 

Axelrod steadfastly refused to see it. "They didn't use my story, my
play or my script," he said. 

He wrote another script for Monroe, "Bus Stop," based on William Inge's
play. His next assignment, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," was marked by
acrimony with director Blake Edwards. 

Axelrod, who still lived in the East then, was advised by Wilder: "You
can't sit in New York, see the finished project, then raise hell about
it. If you want to be involved in the making of the picture, you've got
to be out here to do it." 

Taking the advice, Axelrod moved to Hollywood and became the
highest-paid writer in films. 

He was born June 9, 1922, in New York City and started working early;
becoming an omnivorous reader "to make up for my lack of formal
education." He also haunted Broadway theaters. 

After three wartime years in the Army Signal Corps, he returned to New
York and wrote scripts for radio, then television. He calculated that
he had written more than 400 broadcasts. 

"The Manchurian Candidate," in 1962, based on Richard Condon's novel
about wartime brainwashing and subversive politics, may have been
Axelrod's best achievement. He declared in 1995 that the script "broke
every rule. It's got dream sequences, flashbacks, narration out of
nowhere ... Everything in the world you're told not to do." 

He considered "The Manchurian Candidate" a comedy, but critics,
audiences and pressure groups were offended by the tale of an American
POW in Korea who returns home and kills a powerful politician. After
President Kennedy's assassination, it was shelved. When the film was
rereleased in 1987, critics proclaimed it a classic. 

Another of Axelrod's plays, "Goodbye, Charlie," became a movie starring
Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis. His other films as writer include
"Phffft," "Paris When It Sizzles," "How to Murder Your Wife," "Lord
Love a Duck" (also directed), "The Secret Life of an American Wife"
(also directed). He also wrote three novels. 

In 1987, Axelrod was saluted at the New York Film Festival. He told the
admiring crowd: "I always wanted to get into the major leagues, and I
knew my secret: luck and timing. I had a small and narrow but very,
very sharp talent, and inside it, I'm as good as it gets." 

Axelrod's second wife, Joan, died in 2001. He is survived by four
children, seven grandchildren and a sister. A private service was
planned.