Introduction
Felix Jackson (June 5, 1902 – December 7, 1992) was a German-born American screenwriter and film producer. He was born in Hamburg as Felix Joachimson. Jackson was a city editor in Germany at 21, then a dramatic and music critic, and helped manage three theaters in Berlin. He joined Joe Pasternak as a producer in Budapest in 1933. He began working in the German film industry, before relocating after the rise of the Nazi party. He moved to Austria and Hungary in the mid-1930s where he frequently collaborated with the director Henry Koster. His screenplay for the 1935 film Little Mother served as the basis for a Hollywood remake Bachelor Mother (1939) which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Jackson moved to Hollywood in the late 1930s, writing the screenplay for Destry Rides Again (1939) a western starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. He was active in the European Film Fund, which provided support to European emigre filmmakers. He produced several Deanna Durbin films for Universal Pictures and they married in 1945. He joined the advertising agency Young and Rubicam in 1946, heading up its dramatic-television department. He served as executive producer of Pulitzer Prize Playhouse which aired on the ABC television network.
Selected filmography
Screenwriter
- No More Love (1931)
- Five of the Jazz Band (1932)
- Love at First Sight (1932)
- Das häßliche Mädchen (1933)
- The Merry Heirs (1933)
- Peter (1934)
- A Precocious Girl (1934)
- Four and a Half Musketeers (1935)
- Little Mother (1935)
- Catherine the Last (1936)
- Bubi (1937)
- Mad About Music (1938)
- The Rage of Paris (1938)
- The Girl Downstairs (1938)
- Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939)
- Bachelor Mother (1939)
- Destry Rides Again (1939)
- Spring Parade (1940)
- Appointment for Love (1941)
- Back Street (1941)
- I'll Be Yours (1947)
Producer
- Hers to Hold (1943)
- His Butler's Sister (1943)
- Christmas Holiday (1944)
- Sensations of 1945 (1944)
- Lady on a Train (1945)
- Because of Him (1946)