Biografia
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ketti Frings, who also distinguished herself as a screenwriter, was born Katherine Hartley on February 28, 1909 in Columbus, Ohio. After attending Principia College, she got a job in the advertising industry as a copywriter before turning to journalism, writing features for United Press International. Subsequently, she worked as a publicity agent, eventually became a radio scriptwriter and also, under the pen name Anita Kigore, writing copy for movie magazines.
She established herself when her story, "Memo to a Movie Producer", was adapted by screenwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder into the A-List 1941 movie Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture. She herself became a screenwriter by contributing to the screenplay of the 1943 adaptation of Jane Eyre (1943). A decade later, she was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama for adapting William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), a big hit in 1952.
Her first Broadway play, "Mr. Sycamore", starring Lillian Gish was staged in 1942. It was not a success, lasting only 19 performances. She was much more successful with her second Broadway play, winning the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for drama for adapting Thomas Wolfe's sprawling novel "Look Homeward, Angel," for the Broadway stage. She received the first of her two Tony Award nominations for "Angel", which was a hit, playing for 564 performances. Her third play, "The Long Dream", was a flop in 1960, closing after five performances, but the musical "Walking Happy" played 161 performances. In 1967, she was nominated along with Roger O. Hirson for a Tony for writing the book of "Walking Happy."
Her last show on Broadway was the 1978 musical "Angel", adapted from her Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Frings provided the book. "Angel" closed after five performances in 1978. Six years earlier, Frings adapted her play for TV, with the 1972 production of Look Homeward, Angel (1972). Her last credited screenplay was an adaptation of her first play, Mr. Sycamore (1975), in 1975.
She married Kurt Frings in 1938. The couple had two children, Kathie and Peter, before divorcing in 1963.
Afflicted with cancer, Ketti Frings died a fortnight short of her 72nd birthday on February 11, 1981 in Los Angeles.
