George Seaton

Miracle On 34th Street

The script written by George Seaton Miracle on 34th street is one of the best Christmas movies of all time. Here is a biography of George Seaton and his career.

Full name: George Seaton (born George Stenius)
DOB: April 17th 1911
DOD: July 28th 1979
Where born: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Great movies require great screen writers and directors, and that certainly was the case with Miracle on 34th Street. For this great Christmas movie, which through television is still being viewed and loved over 60 years after its release, George Seaton is credited with both these roles.

The original story of Miracle on 34th Street was written by Valentine Davies, but George Seaton adapted it for the screen, turning it in to one of the most popular movies of all time.

As well as his skills as screenwriter and film director, George also had experience as an actor. He worked as an actor for the Detroit radio station WXYZ, and was later to enjoy the star role in the 1930s version of The Lone Ranger.

George was to move into the job which was to make him achieve cinema greatness when he became a staff writer at Metro-Goldwyn- Meyer in 1933. He was credited with the writing for the Marx Brothers 1937 movie A Day at the Races.

By the early 1940s George Seaton switched to 20th Century Fox where his screen writing earned renown for such films as Moon over Miami, Charly's Aunt and the Song of Bernadette.

During this period he also became known as a film producer, working on such cinematic gems as Apartment for Peggy, The Big Lift and The Proud and the Profane, as well as Miracle on 34th Street.

Miracle on 34th Street 1947 also saw George honoured by the film industry. He gained the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie. He also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay for his work on The Country Girl. And in 1961 George received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

George also wrote for the stage. But Not Goodbye in 1944 was his first play on Broadway. In 1967 he directed Love in E Flat. And in what must be something of a tribute to George Seaton, his screenplay for Miracle on 34th Street was adapted for the Broadway musical Here's Love by Meredith Wilson, and proved to be a success.

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