John michael hayes

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on May 11, 1919, John Michael Hayes discovered his vocation for writing when he was very young and began working as a news editor for the Boy Scouts. He graduated with a business degree from the University of Massachusetts. After fighting in World War II, he moved to California, where he began his career as a radio writer. In 1950 he married a model, Mildred Hicks, to whom he remained together until she died in 1989. The couple had four children.

Starting in 1952, Hayes dedicated himself to writing film scripts, a profession that he would practice for 4 decades. He started writing Brothers in Danger , a war drama by Budd Boetticher , although Bahía Negra , an adventure film by Anthony Mann , starring James Stewart , had a bigger impact . Stewart himself would star in Rear Window , the first work for Alfred Hitchcock by Hayes, who adapted the screenplay from Cornell Woolrich ‘s short story ‘Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint’ . Apparently, Hayes was inspired by his own wife, the model Mildred, to compose the character ofGrace Kelly , Stewart’s girlfriend. The film was the writer’s first Oscar nomination, who would again be a candidate for the statuette years later for Wuthering Lives , with which he did not win either.

Hitchcock had been so pleased with his work that he commissioned him right after To Catch a Thief , But… Who Killed Harry? and the new version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) . This last tape separated them forever, as Hitchcock decided to also hire another writer, Angus MacPhail , to help him. The master of suspense insisted that MacPhail also do the credits, but Hayes thought he had to do it himself. The Writers Guild arbitrated the matter and agreed with Hayes, but Hitchcock did not rehire him. “It was very satisfying to work with him. But off movie sets I think Hitchcock was a self-centered man bordering on insanity,” Hayes said.

Hayes wrote the screenplays for films including William Wyler ‘s The Slander – based on a play by Lillian Hellman – and A Scarred Woman , for which Elizabeth Taylor won the Best Actress Oscar. He was also the author of The Venus of Wrath , with Sophia Loren and of Nevada Smith , with Steve McQueen . Until he retired in 2000, Hayes dedicated himself to teaching screenwriting to new generations at Dartmouth College, a New Hampshire Academy.