WRITER · BORN 1894 · DIED 1964
Ben Hecht
- Born
- 28 February 1894, New York City, New York, USA
- Died
- 18 April 1964
- Known for
- Angels Over Broadway (1940), Crime Without Passion (1934), The Scoundrel (1935), Tonight Starring Jack Paar (1957)
13 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (13)
- #001
Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay for the 1932 film "Scarface." The film was inspired by the life of the famous Chicago gangster Al Capone, but the characters' names and some events were changed. After the screenplay was finished and before shooting began, Hecht was visited in his Hollywood hotel room by two of Capone's hitmen, who had somehow obtained a copy of the script and wanted to discuss how their boss was portrayed. A very nervous Hecht told them that the screenplay's only common point with Capone was the nickname "Scarface," which Capone hated and was known to beat people for using.
- #002
At a Hollywood party one night in the 1950s, Ben Hecht drank a little more than usual and, under the influence, began telling a story about a group of astronauts who crash-land on a planet inhabited entirely by beautiful, sexually willing women who plan to capture the astronauts and use them to repopulate their world. About a year later, Hecht came across a low-budget science fiction film with the same premise. He obtained the film's screenplay and realized his own story had been used without permission.
- #003
Counting uncredited work as well, Ben Hecht is the most represented screenwriter in the fifth edition of Steven Jay Schneider's "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die." The films he wrote on the list include "Scarface" (1932), "Gunga Din" (1939), "Wuthering Heights" (1939), "His Girl Friday" (1940) — his credit on that film comes from having written the original play "The Front Page" — "Spellbound" (1945) and "Notorious" (1946). Hecht also worked uncredited on films such as "Queen Christina" (1933), "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938) and "Stagecoach" (1939).
- #004
Before he made his name as a screenwriter, Ben Hecht worked in Chicago as a crime reporter and columnist. The experience gave him close knowledge of the criminal underworld and of how the police department operated. The observations he made during his journalism career later inspired the screenplays and plays he wrote, and his play "The Front Page" in particular drew heavily on his experiences in the newspaper world.
- #005
Ben Hecht wrote the entire screenplay for the 1932 film "Scarface" in just 11 days. The screenplay, inspired by the life of Al Capone, later became one of the classics of cinema history. This fast working pace was a trait often seen later in Hecht's career; he completed many screenplays in a short time and became one of Hollywood's most sought-after writers.
- #006
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Ben Hecht had his own television talk show in the New York City area. On the program he shared current events, culture and his own experiences with viewers, and interviewed notable figures of the day.
- #007
In 1983, the famous director Brian De Palma remade the 1932 film "Scarface," written by Ben Hecht, and dedicated the film to Hecht. De Palma's version, starring Al Pacino as the character Tony Montana, became a cult production. Hecht's original screenplay is regarded as one of the cornerstones of the gangster film genre, and De Palma's tribute helped keep Hecht's legacy alive.
- #008
Ben Hecht was an extremely prolific writer. Five years before his death, when he calculated the total of his career, he found he had written 65 film screenplays, 25 books, 20 plays, 250 short stories and at least 300 magazine articles. This productivity made him one of Hollywood's most sought-after and respected screenwriters.
- #009
In the late 1940s, Ben Hecht made anti-British statements because of his support for the founding of Israel. The statements were so provocative that on prints of the film "Whirlpool" released in the United Kingdom his name was replaced with the pseudonym Lester Barstow.
- #010
Ben Hecht was portrayed by the actor Mark Kiely in an episode of the 1993 television production "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues." The series dealt with the youth of the famous archaeologist Indiana Jones, and Hecht's character showed his connections to important figures of the era's literary and film worlds.
- #011
Ben Hecht died shortly after finishing his last screenplay, "The Magnificent Showman." His death was a great loss for the film world, as he had been behind many unforgettable films during Hollywood's golden age. Dying right after completing his final work showed that he kept writing until the end of his life and never lost his passion.
- #012
In 1963, Ben Hecht wrote the autobiographical book "Gaily Gaily," about the years he spent as a reporter in Chicago. Earlier, in 1954, a more comprehensive account of his life, "A Child of the Century," had been published. In 1969 a film adaptation titled "Gaily Gaily" was made, in which Beau Bridges played a character named "Harvey," very loosely based on Hecht.
- #013
Ben Hecht's best-known play is "The Front Page," which he wrote with Charles MacArthur. A comedy-drama about the newspaper world and freedom of the press, it was first staged in 1928, won great acclaim and was later adapted for the screen many times, including the films "His Girl Friday" (1940) and "The Front Page" (1974).
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work