Theodore Strauss (December 27, 1912 – October 30, 2009) was an American writer.
Strauss was born in Oklahoma on December 27, 1912.[1][2] He worked in circulation at The New York Times in the 1930s.[3]
His novel Night at Hogwallow (Little, Brown & Co.,1937) was received positively by The New York Times.[4] Later he became the paper's "second-string film critic" (after Bosley Crowther).[5] In 1944, he left The New York Times to work as a screenwriter at Paramount.[5][6]
Strauss was known for his novel Moonrise (Viking, 1946).[7][8] It was first published serially in a magazine and then adapted for the 1948 film of the same name.[9][10]
He worked for Life magazine and in 1956 was named editor of Woman's Home Companion.[11][12][5] He was also editorial director of Crowell-Collier.[5][13] In 1957, he returned to the film industry in the eastern story department of 20th Century-Fox.[14][15] Robert Goldstein named him executive story editor at Fox in 1960.[16]
From the 1960s–1980s, he was known for television documentaries.[17][18] Strauss and Terry Sanders won a Writers Guild of America Award for the film The Legend of Marilyn Monroe (1966).[19] He was nominated for an Emmy for I Will Fight No More Forever (1975) and he won an Emmy for America Salutes Richard Rodgers: The Sound of His Music (1976).[20][21]
Strauss narrated the first hour of Jacques Cousteau: Cries from the Deep (1982). A Variety review said it was "dismally narrated" and elaborated that his "high-toned verbiage" spoiled the trip for viewers.[22]
AVariety review of his 1986 effort, Clue: Movies, Murder & Mystery, was critical: "Writer Theodore Strauss throws in so many subjects involved in fictional murder that the viewer is left wondering what the mystery is all about".[23]
Strauss was married to Catherine Morrison; they had a son, Eric.[24][25]
Later Strauss married Dorothy Comingore from 1947 to 1952; they had a son, Peter.[26][27][28][29][13] In 1956, Strauss married his third wife, Luann "Ludy" Miller, in Connecticut; they had a son, Jonathan, around 1960.[30][31][32]
Theodore Strauss died on October 30, 2009.[1]