Joseph L. Mankiewicz
![Mankiewicz in a 1950 publicity photograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Joseph_L._Mankiewicz_%281950%29.jpg)
Comfortable in a variety of genres and able to elicit career performances from actors and actresses alike, Mankiewicz combined ironic, sophisticated scripts with a precise, sometimes stylized mise en scène.
Mankiewicz worked for seventeen years as a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures and as a writer and producer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer before getting a chance to direct at 20th Century Fox. Over six years, he made 11 films for Fox.
During his over 40-year career in Hollywood, Mankiewicz wrote approximately 48 screenplays. He also produced more than 20 films, including ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940) which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and ''Woman of the Year'' (1942), for which he introduced Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy. Provided by Wikipedia