George Seaton: the two-Oscar screenwriter born at the Bend

1911 – 1979

George Seaton (1911–1979): the first of the three names the earlier passes flagged for the Famous People roster, entered here whole as his holding entry; the Authors section carries his shelf at writers' size, and assembly decides his final home. He was born George Edward Stenius in South Bend on 17 April 1911. The raising was Detroit's — he settled there after school as a radio and stock-company actor — and the tie is printed at exactly that strength: born here, formed elsewhere. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer took him as a contract writer in 1933; the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races (1937) stands among the early credits. At 20th Century Fox he wrote The Song of Bernadette (1943), which brought the first Academy Award nomination, and in 1945 he began directing with Diamond Horseshoe.

The peak: Seaton wrote and directed Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which won him the Academy Award for its screenplay, and The Country Girl (1954), which won him the screenplay Oscar again and a nomination as best director — Grace Kelly's Academy Award performance was one of three Oscar-winning performances he directed, Edmund Gwenn's and Helen Hayes's the others. Turner Classic Movies counts more than twenty directed films, among them The Big Lift (1950), the Berlin Airlift drama with Montgomery Clift, and Teacher's Pet (1958); his screenplay for Airport (1970) brought a final nomination, and the Writers Guild records that Airport stood as Universal's largest moneymaker until Jaws. The industry then made him its own officer: president of the screenwriters' guild in 1948–49, and three times president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1955 to 1958 — he directed the Academy Awards ceremony itself in 1956. The Academy gave him its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for 1961, presented at the 1962 ceremonies — the Writers Guild dates the award 1961 and Turner Classic Movies the 1962 presentation, and both forms stand. The Guild added its Screen Laurel Award in 1961 and its Valentine Davies Award in 1968. He died of cancer at Beverly Hills on 28 July 1979. Two Academy Awards, the presidency of the Academy itself, and a South Bend birth: the flag that kept him out of the famous roster was a filing question, and it is settled here.

Sources:

1. Writers Guild of America (wga.org), George Seaton biography and past-presidents record — the South Bend birth of 17 April 1911, the two screenplay Academy Awards, the nominations, the three Academy presidencies, the 1961 Hersholt Award, the Screen Laurel (1961) and Valentine Davies (1968) awards, Airport as Universal's largest moneymaker until Jaws.
2. Turner Classic Movies, George Seaton profile (Roger Fristoe, 2005) — the Detroit settling, the directing debut and the twenty-plus films, the three Oscar-winning performances directed, the 1962-ceremonies Hersholt presentation.
3. Authors section of this history (banked) — the screenwriter shelf, with the Britannica and guild citations carried there.