Wendell Mayes


Wendell Curran Mayes was a Hollywood screenwriter.

Background

Wendell Curran Mayes was born on July 21, 1919, in Hayti, Missouri. His father, Von Mayes, was a lawyer, and his mother, Irene, was a teacher. Wendell attended primary school in Caruthersville, Missouri; Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee; and Central College in Fayette, Missouri. He had one year of law school at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Career

Mayes moved to Washington DC to work as a filing clerk in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, then to New York, where he worked in the theater. Subsequently he was an exterminator and gold prospector in Arizona, a truck driver in Texas. During World War II he worked as a welder in a Baltimore shipyard, and joined the Navy as a petty officer shipbuilder. In 1945 he was discharged from the Navy and moved back to New York.

Screenwriter

Mayes began as an actor, then turned to writing. An episode No Riders that he wrote for "Pond's Theater" received a good review in a Los Angeles newspaper and Billy Wilder hired him to work on the script to the film The Spirit of St. Louis.
For Anatomy of a Murder, Mayes received a New York Film Critics Circle Award for best screenplay in 1959 and an Oscar nomination in 1960. It is claimed to be one of the best trial movies of all time.

Personal life and death

Wendell Mayes died of cancer aged 72 on March 28, 1992, in Santa Monica, California. His last script was Criminal Behavior that starred Farrah Fawcett.

Works

Screenwriting credits include: