{{Short description|British screenwriter (1894–1967)}} {{for|the professor of politics|Elizabeth Meehan (academic)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox person | image = ElizabethMeehan1928.jpg | image_size = | caption = Elizabeth Meehan, from a 1928 publication. | name = Elizabeth Meehan | birth_date = 22 August 1894 | birth_place = Isle of Wight, United Kingdom | death_date = {{death date and age|24 April 1967|22 August 1894}} | death_place = New York City, United States | other_names = Betty Meehan, Betty Williams, Elizabeth Meehan Williams | occupation = Screenwriter | years_active = }} '''Elizabeth Meehan''' (22 August 1894 – 24 April 1967) was a British screenwriter who worked in both Britain and Hollywood.
== Early life == Meehan was born on the Isle of Wight, and lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14180528/elizabeth_meehan_scenario_writer/|title=Letters to 'Ye Ed'|date=October 6, 1935|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=58|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14180500/elizabeth_meehan_aka_betty_williams/|title=Another Chorus Girl Makes Good|last=Jordan|first=Anne|date=January 8, 1929|work=The Daily News|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=2|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== Career == As a young woman, Betty Meehan was a model, a professional swimmer,<ref name=":0" /> and a chorus girl with the Ziegfeld Follies, in the same sextet of dancers as Billie Dove and Alta King. "Oh yes, I know that chorines have the reputation of being beautiful but dumb," she explained in a 1928 interview, "And, perhaps, some of them are. But you'd be surprised at the girls you'll find in the choruses."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-dec-14-1928-1325324/|title=Extra-Girl Writes Way to Fame|last=Cohn|first=Gene|date=December 14, 1928|work=Bismarck Tribune|access-date=August 23, 2019|page=29|via=NewspaperArchive}}</ref>
Meehan credited James M. Barrie with helping her transition into screenwriting.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35227988/elizabeth_meehan_1937/|title=From Chorus Girl to Script Writer|date=January 14, 1937|work=Star-Phoenix|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=8|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> During the late 1930s Meehan was employed by the studio head Walter C. Mycroft to work for British International Pictures.<ref>Harper, Sue. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lIyvAwAAQBAJ&q=Meehan Women in British Cinema: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know]''. Continuum International, 2000. p. 184.</ref> Meehan frequently collaborated with the Irish director Herbert Brenon.
Later in her career, Meehan worked in television, writing episodes of ''Lux Video Theatre, Fireside Theatre'', and ''Mama''.
== Personal life == Meehan had a daughter, Frances Meehan Williams (1930-2006),<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14182966/frances_meehan_williams_birthday_party/|title=Storybook Folk at Party|date=July 21, 1935|work=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=51|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> who became an actress and later a psychotherapist.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35227651/elizabeth_meehan_1951/|title=Starlets, Screenwriter Here For Movie Observance|date=October 9, 1951|work=LNP Always Lancaster|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=24|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14184583/obituary_frances_meehan/|title=Frances Meehan|date=September 1, 2006|work=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=140|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Elizabeth Meehan died in 1967, in New York, aged 72 years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14179598/obituary_elizabeth_meehan/|title=Elizabeth Meehan|date=April 27, 1967|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=27|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Her daughter donated some of her original scripts and screenplays to the Special Collections library at UCLA.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3p3005bk/dsc/|title=Finding Aid for the Elizabeth Meehan Papers, 1930-1955|website=UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref>
==Selected filmography== * ''The Great Gatsby'' (1926) *''God Gave Me Twenty Cents'' (1926) * ''Sorrell and Son'' (1927) * ''The Telephone Girl'' (1927) * ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' (1928) * ''The Rescue'' (1929) * ''The Case of Sergeant Grischa'' (1930) * ''Lummox'' (1930) * ''Beau Ideal'' (1931) * ''Oliver Twist'' (1933) * ''West of Singapore'' (1933) * ''Harmony Lane'' (1935) * ''Spring Handicap'' (1937) * ''Over She Goes'' (1938) * ''Star of the Circus'' (1938) * ''Housemaster'' (1938) * ''A Gentleman's Gentleman'' (1939) * ''Parachute Nurse'' (1942) * ''Storm Over Lisbon'' (1944) * ''Northwest Outpost'' (1947)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Harper, Sue. ''Women in British Cinema: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know''. Continuum International, 2000. * Low, Rachael. ''History of the British Film: Filmmaking in 1930s Britain''. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0576035}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Meehan, Elizabeth}} Category:1894 births Category:1967 deaths Category:Ziegfeld girls Category:20th-century British screenwriters Category:British emigrants to the United States