Menu
Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges

Known For Directing
Birthday Aug 29, 1898
Died Aug 06, 1959 (60)
Birthplace Chicago, Illinois, USA
Popularity 0.4 (history)
Updated Aug 09, 2025
Entry Date Apr 13, 2024
Links TMDb IMDb
Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Preston Sturges (29 August 1898 – 6 August 1959), originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1941 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGin ... ty. Sturges took the screwball comedy format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, heard today, is often surprisingly naturalistic, mature, and ahead of its time, despite the farcical situations. In recent years, film scholars such as Alessandro Pirolini have also argued that Sturges' cinema anticipated more experimental narratives by contemporary directors such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Robert Zemeckis, and Woody Allen, along with prolific The Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder: "Many of [Sturges'] movies and screenplays reveal a restless and impatient attempt to escape codified rules and narrative schemata, and to push the mechanisms and conventions of their genre to the extent of unveiling them to the spectator. [See for example] the disruption of standardized timelines in films such as The Power and the Glory and The Great McGinty [or the way] an apparently classical comedy such as Unfaithfully Yours (1948) shifts into the realm of multiple and hypothetical narratives. Prior to Sturges, other figures in Hollywood (such as Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Frank Capra) had directed films from their own scripts. However, Sturges is often regarded as the first Hollywood figure to be initially mainly successfully established as a screenwriter and then to subsequently move into directing his own scripts, at a time when those roles were mostly entrenched and separate. Famously, Sturges sold the story for The Great McGinty to Paramount Pictures for $1, in return for being allowed to direct the film; the sum was quietly raised to $10 by the studio for legal reasons. Description above from the Wikipedia article Preston Sturges, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Filmography

Paris Holiday

Paris Holiday

1958

as Serge Vitry

Star Spangled Rhythm

Star Spangled Rhythm

1942

as Preston Sturges

Christmas in July

Christmas in July

1940

as Man at Shoeshine Stand (uncredited)

Unfaithfully Yours

Unfaithfully Yours

1984

Original Film Writer

Rock-a-Bye Baby

Rock-a-Bye Baby

1958

Story

The Birds and the Bees

The Birds and the Bees

1956

Screenplay

Unfaithfully Yours

Unfaithfully Yours

1948

Screenplay

I'll Be Yours

I'll Be Yours

1947

Writer

The Great Moment

The Great Moment

1944

Screenplay

The Palm Beach Story

The Palm Beach Story

1942

Screenplay

The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve

1941

Screenplay

Sullivan's Travels

Sullivan's Travels

1941

Writer

Christmas in July

Christmas in July

1940

Theatre Play, Writer

The Great McGinty

The Great McGinty

1940

Writer

Remember the Night

Remember the Night

1940

Screenplay

Never Say Die

Never Say Die

1939

Screenplay

If I Were King

If I Were King

1938

Writer

College Swing

College Swing

1938

Screenplay

Port of Seven Seas

Port of Seven Seas

1938

Writer

Hotel Haywire

Hotel Haywire

1937

Writer

Easy Living

Easy Living

1937

Screenplay

Love Before Breakfast

Love Before Breakfast

1936

Writer

The Good Fairy

The Good Fairy

1935

Screenplay

Diamond Jim

Diamond Jim

1935

Writer

We Live Again

We Live Again

1934

Adaptation

Thirty Day Princess

Thirty Day Princess

1934

Screenplay

Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century

1934

Writer

Child of Manhattan

Child of Manhattan

1933

Theatre Play

The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory

1933

Screenplay

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man

1933

Writer

Strictly Dishonorable

Strictly Dishonorable

1931

Theatre Play

The Big Pond

The Big Pond

1930

Dialogue

Organization Category Movie
Television Credits

No data available

Reflets de Cannes

as Self

Episodes: 1

First Aired: Mar 25, 1954

Popularity Metrics

Popularity History


Year Month Avg Max Min
2024 6 4 7 1
2024 7 7 15 1
2024 8 6 14 2
2024 9 8 13 2
2024 10 2 5 1
2024 11 1 4 1
2024 12 2 4 1
2025 1 5 16 1
2025 2 2 4 1
2025 3 2 3 1
2025 4 0 0 0
2025 5 1 2 1
2025 6 1 1 1
2025 7 0 0 0
2025 8 1 7 0
2025 9 0 0 0
2025 10 0 0 0

Trending Rank


Year Month Avg Rank Max Rank
2024 6 883 883

Return to Top