- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDonald Martin Mankiewicz
- Donald Mankiewicz was born in Berlin into an illustrious creative family, his father being the screen-writer Herman Mankiewicz and his uncle film director Joseph Mankiewicz, whilst his brother Frank would also distinguish himself as a journalist. Brought up in Beverly Hills - where his parents' dinner guests numbered the biggest screen stars of the 1930s - he graduated from Columbia University in 1942 and served in Army Intelligence before becoming a staff writer for the 'New Yorker'. In the early 1950s, he began writing for television, one of his early jobs being an adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Last Tycoon'. At the time, he commented that, of his writing contemporaries, he was possibly the only one to have known the author, who was a friend of his father. In 1958 he was Oscar-nominated for writing 'I Want To Live', which gained Susan Hayward her Academy Award as convicted murderess Barbara Graham, though much of his work was in television, on such series as 'Marcus Welby,MD', 'Ironside', and 'Star Trek', and, as a key member of the writers' union, he helped to gain union recognition for quiz show writers. Don Mankiewicz died of heart failure at his home in Monrovia, California on 25 April 2015, leaving behind a widow Carol, to whom he had been married for 43 years and four children, son John being a screen-writer and daughter Jane an authoress.- IMDb Mini Biography By: don @ minifie-1
- SpousesCarol Bell Guidi(July 1, 1972 - April 25, 2015) (his death, 2 children)Ilene Thelma Korsen(March 26, 1946 - 1972) (divorced, 1 child)
- Parents
- RelativesJoseph L. Mankiewicz(Aunt or Uncle)
- Uncle of Timothy, Jesse, Antonia and Nick Davis (Johanna's children), Ben Mankiewicz and Josh Mankiewicz (Frank's sons).
- Was born into a family of writers.
- One of his earliest jobs in the entertainment industry was as a gag writer for Robert Q. Lewis.
- Son of Herman J. Mankiewicz.
- Nephew of Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
- [in a 1992 interview] I've been at this business for just about as long as anybody alive and I have plenty more ideas to try to get people interested in. Besides, I've made no provision for my old age; if I get to be 84, I'll still have to be working!
- [about Neville Brand, with whom he worked on a TV adaptation of "All The King's Men"] Neville Brand was a good actor, but what he's famous for is that he was blacklisted at Universal. He was a drunk and he pissed on a tour bus filled with tourists. He didn't work at Universal after that.
- Who Has Seen the Wind? (1965) - $10,000
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