George Axelrod was an American screenwriter, producer, playwright and film director, best known for his play The Seven Year Itch, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe.
11 Facts About George Axelrod
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George Axelrod was born in New York City, the son of Beatrice Carpenter, a silent film actress, and Herman George Axelrod, a Columbia graduate who had worked on the school's annual Varsity Show with Oscar Hammerstein and who later went into real estate.
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George Axelrod's father was Russian Jewish and his mother was of Scottish and English descent.
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George Axelrod was the father of lawyer Peter Axelrod; Steven Axelrod, painting contractor and writer; Nina Axelrod, actress; and stepfather of screenwriter Jonathan Axelrod.
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Early in his career, George Axelrod worked in summer stock theater as a stage manager and an occasional actor.
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Comedians for whom he wrote included Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin George Axelrod wrote the 1952 stage comedy, The Seven Year Itch, a risque social satire about a middle-class man who has an affair while his wife and children are on vacation.
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George Axelrod was highly regarded for his adaptation of Richard Condon's novel for director John Frankenheimer's Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate starring Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra.
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George Axelrod wrote the original screenplay for How to Murder Your Wife, directed by Richard Quine with Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi and Terry-Thomas.
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George Axelrod directed Lord Love a Duck, and two years later, he directed The Secret Life of an American Wife.
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On June 21,2003, at the age of 81, George Axelrod died quietly at his Los Angeles home.
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George Axelrod was under hospice care after a lingering illness.