Jesse L. Lasky Jr.

{{short description|American screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet (1910–1988)}} {{Infobox person | name = Jesse L. Lasky Jr. | image = Jesse L. Lasky, Jr.jpg | caption = Lasky {{Circa}} 1959 | birth_name = Jesse Louis Lasky Jr. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|09|19}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|04|11|1910|09|19}} | death_place = London, UK | resting_place = Hollywood Forever Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | education = Blair Academy Hun School of Princeton | alma_mater = University of Dijon | occupation = {{flatlist| * Screenwriter * novelist * playwright * poet }} | years_active = 1920s–1988 | notable_works = ''Samson and Delilah'' ''The Ten Commandments'' (film screenplays) ''Whatever Happened to Hollywood?'' (autobiography) | title = Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, Screen Branch | spouse = {{marriage|Pat Silver|1959}} | children = | parents = Jesse Lasky Sr. | awards = 2 ''Boxoffice'' Magazine Awards 1 Christopher Award }}

'''Jesse Louis Lasky Jr.''' (September 19, 1910 – April 11, 1988) was an American screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet. Lasky wrote eight novels, five plays, three books of poetry and more than 50 screenplays, including eight for director Cecil B. DeMille.

==Early life== He was the son of film producer Jesse Lasky Sr. and his wife, Bessie Ida Ginsberg. Lasky was born on Broadway, New York, and raised in Hollywood, Los Angeles, in England and in France. He attended Blair Academy, the Hun School of Princeton, Grand Central School of Art and the University of Dijon, France, where he was awarded a degree in literature.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sus-AQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Jesse+L.+Lasky%22+%22blair+academy%22 ''International Motion Picture Almanac''], p. 173. Quigley Publications, 1951. Accessed September 14, 2018. "Lasky, Jr., Jesse... e. Blair Academy, Hun School of Princeton, Grand Central School of Art, U. of Dijon"</ref> After winning awards for poetry at the age of 17, he embarked on a career as a professional writer. He was of Jewish descent.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=I0byBwAAQBAJ&q=lasky |first=John|last=Cones|title=Motion Picture Biographies: The Hollywood Spin on Historical Figures|pages=6|date=April 2015|publisher=Algora |isbn=9781628941166}}</ref>

==Career== Lasky wrote eight novels, five plays, three books of poetry and more than 50 screenplays, including eight for director Cecil B. DeMille. In addition to a Christopher Award, he was a two-time winner of the ''Boxoffice'' Magazine Award: in 1949 for ''Samson and Delilah'', and in 1956 for ''The Ten Commandments''. Lasky's writing career took him from Hollywood to London, Rome, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France. David Hempstead cowritten the script for ''Hell and High Water'' (1954) alongside Lasky.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gordon |first=Marsha |title=Film Is Like a Battleground: Sam Fuller's War Movies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l3quDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |page=278 |isbn=9780190269753}}</ref>

==World War II== {{Unreferenced section|date=July 2023}} During World War II, Lasky served as a captain in the Combat Photographic Units of the United States Army Signal Corps during four campaigns in the Southwest Pacific, and was decorated by General Douglas MacArthur. He organised the Army School of Film Training at the Signal Corps Photographic Center, where writers were instructed to script training films for every branch of the military service. He served in Australia.<ref name="smithy">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|date=12 October 2025|access-date=12 October 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-smithy/|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Smithy}}</ref>

==Later life== {{More citations needed|section|date=July 2023}} Returning home after three-and-a-half years of military duty overseas, Lasky resumed his writing career with new books, plays, and films. He lectured on creative writing and the history of Hollywood at many American and British institutions, including the Oxford Union. He also served as Vice President of the Screen Branch of the Writers Guild of America.

In 1962, Lasky and his wife, Pat Silver, moved to London. They also lived for part of the year in southern Spain, and travelled extensively. Lasky was a member of the London gentlemen's Garrick Club and the Company of Military Historians. Tsuguharu Foujita's painting of a 17-year-old Lasky, dating from a trip to Paris with his mother in the 1920s, appears on page 180 of Lasky's autobiography, ''Whatever Happened to Hollywood?'', which was published by Funk and Wagnalls in 1975.

== Death == On April 11, 1988, Lasky died from pancreatic cancer. He was remembered by ''The New York Times'' as "an author and a screenwriter." He is survived by his wife, his stepson, Richard Niles, his stepdaughter, Lisa Romano and his sister, Betty Lasky.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 13, 1988 |title=Jesse Lasky Jr., 79; Was a Screenwriter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/13/obituaries/jesse-lasky-jr-79-was-a-screenwriter.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102060753/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/13/obituaries/jesse-lasky-jr-79-was-a-screenwriter.html |archive-date=2014-01-02 |access-date=2026-03-16 |language=en}}</ref>

==Writer== ===Film=== {{Div col}} *''Coming Out Party'' (1934) *''Redhead'' (1934) *''The White Parade'' (1934) *''Music is Magic'' (1935) *''Secret Agent'' (1936) *''The Buccaneer'' (1938) *''Union Pacific'' (1939) *''Land of Liberty'' (1939) *''North West Mounted Police'' (1940) *''Back in the Saddle'' (1941) *''Steel Against the Sky'' (1941) *''The Singing Hill'' (1941) *''Reap the Wild Wind'' (1942) *''The Omaha Trail'' (1942) *''Unconquered'' (1947) *''Samson and Delilah'' (1949) *''The Sickle or the Cross'' (1949) *''Women Without Names'' (1950) *''Lorna Doone'' (1951) *''Mask of the Avenger'' (1951) *''Never Trust a Gambler'' (1951) *''The Brigand'' (1951) *''Venture of Faith'' (1951) *''Salome'' (1953) *''The Silver Whip'' (1953) *''Mission Over Korea'' (1953) *''The Iron Glove'' (1954) *''Hell and High Water'' (1954) *''Pearl of the South Pacific'' (1955) *''Hot Blood'' (1956) *''The Ten Commandments'' (1955) *''The Buccaneer'' (1958) *''John Paul Jones'' (1959) *''The Wizard of Baghdad'' (1960) *''7 Women from Hell'' (1961) *''Pirates of Tortuga'' (1961) *''Land Raiders'' (1970) *''Crime and Passion'' (1976) *''The Bulldance'' (1989) {{Div col end}}

===Television=== {{Div col}} *''Waterfront'' (1954) *''Studio 57'' (1955) *''Naked City'' (1958) *''Rescue 8'' (1958–1959) *''Shannon'' (1961) *''The New Breed'' (1961–1962) *''The Saint'' (1965) *''Songs of the Wild West'' (1965, TV Movie) *''Chicago in the Roaring 20's'' (1965, TV Movie) *''Danger Man'' (1966) *''The Protectors'' (1973) *''Ben Hall'' (1975) *''Space: 1999'' (1975) *''Philip Marlowe, Private Eye'' (1983–1986) *''Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense'' (1984) {{Div col end}}

==Producer== *''Without Reservations'' (1946) *''The Miracle of the Bells'' (1948)

==Actor== *''The Thief of Bagdad'' (1924)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0489679}} *{{Find a Grave|6331}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasky, Jesse L. Jr.}} Category:1910 births Category:1988 deaths Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century American historians Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:American autobiographers Category:American expatriate academics Category:American expatriates in France Category:American expatriates in Spain Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American male dramatists and playwrights Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:American male novelists Category:American male poets Category:American male screenwriters Category:American male television writers Category:American mass media scholars Category:Television writers from California Category:Blair Academy alumni Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in England Category:Grand Central School of Art alumni Category:Hun School of Princeton alumni Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights Category:Jewish American novelists Category:Jewish American poets Category:Jewish American screenwriters Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Screenwriters from New York (state) Category:United States Army officers Category:Writers from New York City Category:Writers Guild of America board of directors Category:Writing teachers Category:Mass media people from Hollywood, Los Angeles Category:Writers from Hollywood, Los Angeles