- Replaced Herman J. Mankiewicz as the theater critic at "The New Yorker" in 1925, only to leave for Hollywood, as his predecessor had done, in 1929. Worked with director/writer Billy Wilder as his collaborator on 13 movies, including Sunset Boulevard (1950).
- (1938-39) President of the Screen Writers Guild.
- President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949-55.
- His second wife, Lillian, was the younger sister of his first wife, Elizabeth.
- Wrote or contributed to the screenplay of six Best Picture Oscar nominees: Little Women (1933), Ninotchka (1939), Hold Back the Dawn (1941), The Lost Weekend (1945), The Bishop's Wife (1947) and Sunset Blvd. (1950). The Lost Weekend was the only one which won Best Picture.
- He has written five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Midnight (1939), Ninotchka (1939), Ball of Fire (1941), The Lost Weekend (1945) and Sunset Blvd. (1950). He has also produced two films that are in the registry: The Lost Weekend and Sunset Blvd.
- Along with Billy Wilder, Paddy Chayefsky, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Charles Brackett each have won 3 Oscars.
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