Robert Riskin

Robert Riskin (March 30, 1897 – September 20, 1955) was an American screenwriter.

He is best known for his collaborations with Frank Capra.

Robert Riskin was born on New York City's Lower East side to Jewish parents, Bessie and Jakob, who had emigrated from Tsarist Russia to escape conscription.

He and his two brothers and two sisters grew up speaking Yiddish.

An enthusiast of the vaudeville stage, the teen-age Riskin took every opportunity to sneak into the theatre and catch the shows.

He was a particular fan of the comedians who performed there, and he habitually transcribed their jokes into a notebook he carried with him.

While still a teen-ager, Riskin took a job with a shirt-manufacturing firm, Heidenheim and Levy.

The partners of this firm had a sideline business, investing in the new film industry.

They sent the seventeen-year-old Riskin to Florida to run a production company for them.

Riskin turned out one- and two-reel films until his enlistment in the Army during World War I.

At the end of the war, Riskin returned to New York City, where, in partnership with a friend, he found some success in producing plays for Broadway.

Riskin began his career as a playwright, writing for many local New York City playhouses.

Two of his plays, Bless You, Sister and Many a Slip, had successful runs.

Riskin continued his Broadway career until the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression caused many theatres to close.

Motion pictures had just adopted sound, and writers were needed who could write dialogue and were experienced with stage work.

Riskin recognized he had the credentials and seized the opportunity by relocating to Hollywood.

He moved to Hollywood in 1931 after Columbia Pictures bought the screen rights to several of his plays.

His first collaboration with director Frank Capra was the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle The Miracle Woman (1931).

Riskin wrote several films for Columbia, but it was his string of hits with Capra that brought him acclaim.

From 1931 to 1938, Riskin and Capra collaborated on eight films as screenwriter and director.

Riskin contributed to at least six other screenplays directed by Capra.

These films were nominated for 29 Academy Awards, including eight nominations for Riskin and Capra, and won ten, including three for Capra and one for Riskin.

During this period, Riskin and Capra had what appeared to be a harmonious working relationship.

Their personal relationship, however, was strained.

Riskin was politically liberal, while Capra was a committed, conservative Republican.

Riskin received Academy Award nominations for his screenplays and stories for five Capra films: Lady for a Day (1933), which Riskin had adapted from a Damon Runyon short story; It Happened One Night (1934), for which he won the Oscar; Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) with Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur; You Can't Take It with You (1938) with Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart; and Here Comes the Groom (1951) with Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman.

Riskin directed only one entire film, When You're in Love (1937), a minor musical starring Grace Moore and Cary Grant.

Unsuccessful at the box office, When You're in Love is now remembered (if at all) for an unusual publicity stunt: silent film-star Louise Brooks was given a chance at a comeback by appearing as a chorus girl in this movie.

Riskin joined Capra in an independent production company in 1939, but they fell out in 1941.

Riskin then became an associate producer for Samuel Goldwyn.

When the U.S. entered World War II, he joined the Office of War Information in 1942, where he organized the OWI's overseas division.

Riskin returned to Hollywood in 1945, with the screenplay for The Thin Man Goes Home He had an uncredited collaboration on the 1946 film noir classic The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.

Riskin and his brother Everett formed their own film company.

Their first film, the minor James Stewart hit Magic Town (1946), was written and produced by Riskin, who also directed initially.

The directing was finished by William A. Wellman.

Magic Town has a similar flavor and tone to Riskin's Capra-directed films.

In 1950, Riskin suffered a debilitating stroke which left him unable to write.

Riskin had completed the screenplay for Half Angel (1951) and the story for Here Comes the Groom (1951) before the stroke.

Ironically, Capra was assigned to direct Here Comes the Groom, and Riskin received a fifth Academy Award nomination for it.

He was an invalid until he died on September 20, 1955.