Donald Ogden Stewart (1894-1980) began writing after graduating from Yale and military service during the First World War. He found success writing satirical comedy, and became a member of the Algonquin Round Table. In the 1920s he wrote plays that were performed on Broadway, and published a novel.
Stewart’s first work for the cinema was Brown of Harvard (1926), an adaptation of a Rida Johnson Young story. This was followed by contributions to around 40 Hollywood screenplays, including Dinner at Eight (1934), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Holiday (1938), Love Affair (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940, winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay) and An Affair to Remember (1957).
His work on An Affair to Remember was uncredited because Stewart had by then been blacklisted owing to his membership of the Communist Party. He and his wife eventually moved to the UK, where Stewart wrote for the cinema and for television. He remained there for the rest of his life.
Stewart worked on the screenplays of three Metro musicals: Going Hollywood, Reckless (uncredited) and Smilin’ Through.
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