John Michael Hayes (born May 11, 1919 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an American screenwriter.

Life

John Michael Hayes Jr. was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to John Michael Hayes Sr. and Ellen Mabel Hayes. ^[1] Hayes Sr. was a tool and die maker but had performed as a song and dance man on the Keith-Orpheum vaudeville circuit earlier in life.

As a child, young Hayes Jr. missed much of his school career from second grade through fifth grade due to ear infections. ^[1] During that time away from school, he discovered a love of reading. While in junior high school, Hayes became a staff writer on The Spectator, the school newspaper. At age sixteen, Hayes wrote for the high school yearbook as well as edited a Boy Scout weekly entitled The Eagle Trail. His work brought him to the attention of Worcester's Evening Gazette and Hayes began penning articles about Boy Scout activities for the paper. ^[1]

Later stints with the Worcester Telegram and a profile in The Christian Science Monitor led to a job with the Associated Press. Working diligently, Hayes managed to amass enough money to attend college at Massachusetts State College. At college, Hayes became interested in radio and won a contest to write radio stories for Crosley Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio. ^[1]

Following a stint with the US Army during WWII, Hayes moved to California and resumed his radio career. In California, Hayes wrote for such radio dramas as Sam Spade and Inner Sanctum.

Film career

His success in radio led to an invitation from Universal-International Pictures to write screenplays. His first screen credit was for Redball Express in 1952. ^[1]

Much of Hayes's career was spent writing screenplays for glossy, big-budget soap operas like Torch Song with Joan Crawford, Butterfield 8 with Elizabeth Taylor, The Carpetbaggers with Carroll Baker, and Where Love Has Gone ^[2] with Susan Hayward and Bette Davis. His adaptation of Grace Metalious's steamy bestseller, Peyton Place, earned him an Academy Award nomination.

Hayes collaborated with director Alfred Hitchcock on four films: Rear Window (for which he won an Edgar Award and an Oscar nomination), To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Their first collaboration, Rear Window, is considered by many critics to be one of Hitchcock's best and most thrilling pictures. ^{[3] [4]} The Man Who Knew Too Much, a remake of Hitchcock's 1934 film of the same name, became one of the most financially successful films of its year of release.

After several years of retirement, Hayes resurfaced to co-write director Charles Haid's family adventure drama Iron Will ^[5], starring Kevin Spacey, in 1994. He taught film writing at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire until he retired in 2000.

Partial filmography

• Torch Song (1953)
• Rear Window (1954)
• To Catch a Thief (1955)
• The Trouble with Harry (1955)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
• The Matchmaker (1958)
• Butterfield 8 (1960)
• The Children's Hour (1961)
• The Chalk Garden (1964)
• Harlow (1965)
• Nevada Smith (1966)
• Judith (1966)
• Winter Kill (1974)
• Pancho Barnes (1988)
• Iron Will (1994)

References

External links

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