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11 Facts About Charles MacArthur

1.

Charles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright, screenwriter, and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story.

2.

Charles MacArthur joined the United States Army for World War I, and served in France as a private assigned to Battery F, 149th Field Artillery, a unit of the 42nd Division, The Rainbow Division.

3.

Charles MacArthur recounted his wartime experience in 1919's A Bug's-Eye View of the War.

4.

Charles MacArthur is best known for his plays in collaboration with Ben Hecht, Ladies and Gentlemen, Twentieth Century and the frequently filmed The Front Page, which was based in part on Charles MacArthur's experiences at the City News Bureau of Chicago.

5.

Charles MacArthur co-wrote, with Edward Sheldon, the play Lulu Belle, which was staged in 1926 by David Belasco.

6.

Charles MacArthur was friends with members of the Algonquin Round Table, shared an apartment with Robert Benchley and had an affair with Dorothy Parker.

7.

Charles MacArthur was preceded in death by his daughter, Mary, who died of polio in 1949 at age 19.

8.

The shock of her death hastened Charles MacArthur's own, according to those who knew him.

9.

Charles MacArthur's brother, John D MacArthur, was an insurance-company owner and executive, and founded the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, the benefactor of the MacArthur Fellowships.

10.

In 1983, Charles MacArthur was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

11.

Charles MacArthur was portrayed by Matthew Broderick in the 1994 film Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle.