Delmer Daves

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Delmer Daves (July 24, 1904 – August 17, 1977) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Born in San Francisco and a Stanford graduate, he began as a prop boy on The Covered Wagon and later acted in about ten films before turning to screenwriting. He wrote Love Affair (1939) for MGM, which was later remade as An Affair to Remember (1957). He directed Destination Tokyo (1943) and other wartime films for Warner Bros.

After the war he made film noirs like The Red House (1947) and Dark Passage (1947). He found fame with Westerns, starting with Broken Arrow (1950) starring James Stewart, followed by The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Hanging Tree (1959). He worked with stars such as Bogart, Cooper, Ford, Stewart and Widmark, and helped launch the careers of Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and George C. Scott.

Health problems with his heart in 1959 forced him to stop doing demanding Westerns. He then made studio-bound romance dramas for Warner Bros, including A Summer Place (1959), Parrish (1961), Susan Slade (1961) and Rome Adventure (1962). His final films were Spencer's Mountain (1963), Youngblood Hawke (1964) and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965). He was married to actress Mary Lawrence from 1938 until his death. He died in La Jolla, California, in 1977.