Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. (September 19, 1910 - April 11, 1988) was an American screenwriter.
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Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. was the son of the famous film pioneer, Jesse L. Lasky, who produced the first full-length motion picture in Hollywood in 1913 and founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, which became Paramount Pictures. Jesse Jr. was born on Broadway in 1910 and grew up in Hollywood, New York City, England, and France. His mother Bessie was a concert pianist gold medallist of the Boston Conservatory of Music as well as a well known painter who painted all the California Missions (now in the L.A. County Art Museum), and was the author of 3 books.
Jesse attended Blair Academy, the Hun School of Princeton, and the University of Dijon, France, where he received a degree in literature. After winning awards for poetry at the age of 17, he began writing professionally.
Lasky wrote 8 novels, 3 books of verse, 5 plays and over 50 screenplays including 8 for the legendary Cecil B. DeMille. Jesse received the Box Office Award twice ("The Ten Commandments" and "Samson and Delilah") and the Christopher Award from the Catholic Church. His writing took him from Hollywood to London, Rome, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France.
During World War II, Lasky served as a Captain commanding Combat Photographic Units of the Signal Corps in 4 campaigns in the Southwest Pacific, and was decorated by General MacArthur. He organised the Army School of Film Training at the Signal Corps Photographic Centre where writers were trained to script training films for every branch of the Military Service.
Returning from 3 and a half years of overseas duty, Lasky resumed his writing career with books, plays, and films. Jesse lectured on creative writing and Hollywood history at many universities in the United States and England, including The Oxford Union. He also served as Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, Screen Branch.
In 1962, he and his wife, Pat Silver, moved to London. They also lived part of the year in Southern Spain, and travelled extensively. Jesse was a member of The Garrick Club and The Company of Military Historians.
Lasky died on April 11, 1988. Pat now continues to write under the pen name: Pat Silver-Lasky.
Lasky was painted by Tsuguharu Foujita at the age of 17, during a trip to Paris with his mother, Bessie Lasky. A copy of this picture appears on page 180 in Jesse L. Lasky Jr.'s autobiography, Whatever Happened To Hollywood? (published by Funk & Wagnalls, NY 1975)
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