William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 - April 25, 1982), often credited as W. R. Burnett, was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel, Little Caesar, whose film adaptation is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies.
Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio. He left his civil service job there to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over a hundred short stories and fi...
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William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 - April 25, 1982), often credited as W. R. Burnett, was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel, Little Caesar, whose film adaptation is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies.
Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio. He left his civil service job there to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over a hundred short stories and five novels, all unpublished.
In Chicago he found a job as a night clerk in a seedy hotel. Suddenly Burnett found himself associating with a cornucopia of characters straight from the mean streets: prize fighters, hoodlums, hustlers, and hobos. They inspired Little Caesar (novel 1929, film 1931) — its overnight success landed him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. Little Caesar became a classic movie, produced by First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) and starring the then-unknown Edward G. Robinson. The Al Capone theme was one he returned to...
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