Kenneth Casey Robinson (October 17, 1903 – December 6, 1979) was an American producer and director of mostly B movies and a screenwriter responsible for some of Bette Davis' most revered films. Film critic Richard Corliss once described him as "the master of the art – or craft – of adaptation."[1]
In 1927, he began his Hollywood career writing the titles for silent movies.[4] Robinson later said:
Writing subtitles was as good a way for a new writer to begin as any. It took you right into the editorial rooms—handling the film yourself; spotting the places for the titles that carried the thread of the story and dialogue, the sense of the scenes, and what the people were presumably saying on the screen.[3]
Robinson found himself out of work when sound films came in but managed to sell a story The Last Parade which led to a four-week contract at Columbia. While there he worked for Harry Joe Brown and followed Brown to Warner Bros.[5]
After spending the better part of the 1930s and the early 1940s working at Warner Bros., Robinson moved to MGM in the mid-'40s, then to 20th Century Fox in the 1950s.[4] He retired in 1962 and eventually emigrated to Sydney, Australia (his third wife was Australian). While in Sydney he came out of retirement to write and produce Scobie Malone, in 1975.[9][10]
He was married three times. His second wife was prima ballerinaTamara Toumanova; they were wed from 1944 until their divorce in 1955. He died in Sydney, Australia in 1979, aged 76.[11]
Greenberg, Joel (1986). "Casey Robinson: master adaptor". Backstory: interviews with screenwriters of Hollywood's golden age. University of California. pp.290–310.
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