Irving Rapper   (1898-1999) Section B Lot 10

Movie director Irving Rapper was born in London on January 16, 1898 and moved to New York with his family when he was 8 years old. He studied law at New York University. As a young man he became interested in the theater, first as an actor and then later as a stage manager and director. His success was noticed in the late 1920’s by Warner Brothers Studio and was invited to move out to California to begin an apprenticeship there.
His original assignment was to work with German director William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola). He as an assistant director and dialogue coach and worked on three films starring Paul Muni from 1936-1939. He was promoted to director in 1941 and his first film was  “Shining Victory”, an adaption of a stage play. His second film was “One Foot in Heaven” starring Fredric March.

Rapper first met Bette Davis in 1937 during the filming of “Kid  Gallahad” when he was the dialogue director. They became fast friends that lasted a lifetime.  The year of 1942 became the most fruitful of 
his career, directing Miss Davis in “Now, Voyager”. Bette as well as 
her co-star Gladys Cooper, received Academy Award nominations for this 
film. Rapper did three more movies with Davis; “The Corn is 
Green” (1945), “Deception” (1946), and “Another Man’s Poison” (1951).
“She was a powerful actress and a powerful dame,” Rapper was quoted in 
1977. “We had our differences, but they were always settled without 
interference from the front office. I think they were afraid of her.”

Rapper worked with actors such as Robert Alda, Eleanor Parker, and 
Ronald Reagan.
He let his contract with Warner Brothers expire when he had a dispute 
with film head J.L. Warner when he refused to direct “Christopher 
Blake” because he did not approve of the casting of Alexis Smith in 
the lead role.

  Some of the later films he directed were “The Glass Menagerie” with 
Kirk Douglas and Jane Wyman and “Marjorie Morningstar” (1958) starring 
Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly. His best film of this period was “The 
Brave One” (1956). The screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo won an Academy 
Award for this film. Trumbo was at the time blacklisted and went under 
the pseudonym of Robert Rich and did not collect this Oscar for almost 
two decades.

In the 1960’s Rapper did some work in Europe and returned to the 
United States in the 1970’s to do two final films. One was “The 
Christine Jorgensen Story” (1970) about the tennis player who had a 
sex change, and “Born Again” (1978) about the Watergate scandal.

Irving lived at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Home in Los 
Angeles from 1995 until his death in 2000 a few months short of his 
102nd birthday.