"Baby Jane" author died recently - Henry Farrell

ourmaninBusan · April 23rd, 2006, 08:37 AM

I'm not sure how popular this movie is nowadays; it's considered
a camp classic for its overacting and melodrama.

Quote:

"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"
author Henry Farrell dead at 85

LOS ANGELES - Henry Farrell, author of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"
and other melodramatic thrillers that spurred a genre of psychological horror
movies featuring female protagonists, has died. He was 85.

Farrell died March 29 after a long illness at his home in Pacific Palisades,
longtime friend Mary Bishop said.

"Baby Jane," which Farrell wrote in 1960, was the basis for the film two
years later, which brought actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford
together for the first time, late in their flagging careers. The two played
once-famous sisters whose lives ended in disappointment and tragedy.

Farrell and director Robert Aldrich tried to bring the two together
again in "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte," which was based on Farrell's
1964 campy short story.

Crawford declined to act in the film, which ultimately starred Davis as
a demented recluse and Olivia de Havilland as her scheming cousin
who comes from Europe offering to help her.

The film later won seven Academy award nominations. It and "Baby Jane"
became standard bearers for the Grand Guignol film genre starring legendary
female stars in grizzly roles.

Farrell's other books included 1959's "The Hostage," which he wrote
under the name Charles Henry, and 1967's "Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me,"
which French director Francois Truffaut used as a basis for a 1972 film.
He wrote several screenplays for television movies, as well as a number
of episodes of the series "Perry Mason," Bishop said.

Farrell continued writing until his death and served as a mentor to
members of a writing group he belonged to in Pacific Palisades.

Farrell was born Charles Farrell Myers on Sept. 27, 1920 somewhere in
California's Central Valley, and grew up in Coalinga, Bishop said. He was
married to the actress Molly Dodd, who died in 1981. He is survived by
his sister, Wanda Zey Michael, of University Place, Wash.

source: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...a/14264028.htm