Delmer Daves Movies and Career Information

Delmer Daves (July 24, 1904 – August 17, 1977) was an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Born in San Francisco, Delmer Daves first pursued a career as a lawyer. While attending Stanford University he became interested in the burgeoning film industry, first working as a prop boy on the 1923 western The Covered Wagon and serving as a technical advisor on a number of films. After finishing his education in law, he continued his career in Hollywood. After moving to Hollywood in 1928, he began his career as a screenwriter, his first credit being the "talkie" comedy So This Is College released by MGM. Through the 1930s he made a name as a successful screenplay and story writer, while moonlighting as an actor in bit parts and uncredited roles. He penned the successful Dick Powell musicals Dames, Flirtation Walk, and Paging Miss Glory between 1934 and 1935. Daves' largest successes of the period, however, came with 1936's The Petrified Forest and Love Affair (1939). Almost twenty years later Leo McCarey, director of Love Affair, would helm the nearly identical An Affair to Remember (1957) using Daves' script. Daves made his directorial debut in the Cary Grant wartime adventure