George AxelrodFilmography

Born:: June 9, 1922 in New York City, NY
Occupation:: Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Play Author
Biography:: American writer/producer/director George Axelrod cut his teeth on scores of radio and TV scripts during the postwar era. He also penned a well-received 1947 novel titled Beggar's Choice. Axelrod's specialty was the packaging of sex farce together with social satire; he thrived both on stage and on...Read More

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The Manchurian Candidate

Crew: From Screenplay by

Actors: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight

Synopsis: Jonathan Demme directed this updated remake of John Frankenheimer's 1962 cult favorite The Manchurian Candidate, a pioneering examination of political conspiracy and psychological reconditioning. Major Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) and Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) are two soldiers Read More

7/30/04
The Fourth Protocol

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Joanna Cassidy, Ned Beatty, Betsy Brantley, Ray McAnally

Synopsis: Scripted by Frederick Forsyth from his own novel, The Fourth Protocol is a fact-based spy thriller. The titular protocol is a secret agreement between America, Britain and Russia to cease smuggling nuclear weapons into their respective countries. This figures into the schemes of several rogue Read More

8/28/87
The Holcroft Covenant

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Caine, Anthony Andrews, Victoria Tennant, Lilli Palmer, Mario Adorf

Synopsis: Director John Frankenheimer and writers Edward Anhalt and George Axelrod try to inject some life into this adaptation of Robert Ludlum's best-selling espionage novel. Michael Caine stars as Noel Holcroft, who was adopted in Germany by an American family in the waning days of World War II. Now Read More

1985
The Lady Vanishes

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom, Ian Carmichael

Synopsis: Screenwriter George Axelrod turns Alfred Hitchcock's classic comedy-thriller into a capering screwball comedy showcase for Cybill Shepherd and Elliot Gould in this style-less remake of The Lady Vanishes. On an express train traveling through pre-World War II Germany, Amanda Kelly (Cybill Shepherd) Read More

1979
The Secret Life of an American Wife

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Walter Matthau, Anne Jackson, Patrick O'Neal, Edy Williams, Richard Bull

Synopsis: This light romantic comedy finds Victoria (Anne Jackson) the 34-year-old wife of public-relations man Tom Layton (Patrick O'Neal). Tom's biggest client is a big movie star (Walter Matthau), and Tom drops everything to insure that, while in New York, his client is surrounded by beautiful women Read More

1968
Lord Love a Duck

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Tuesday Weld, Lola Albright, Martin West, Ruth Gordon

Synopsis: An intelligent, eccentric high school senior devotes his life to indulging the every whim of the beautiful girl he adores in this quirky, dark-humored comedy. Roddy McDowall plays Alan Musgrave, an odd duck who immediately falls for the school's new student, Barbara Ann Greene (Tuesday Weld). Read More

1966
How to Murder Your Wife

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Terry-Thomas, Eddie Mayehoff, Claire Trevor

Synopsis: George Axelrod's script for How to Murder Your Wife isn't politically correct in the least, but you're likely to get a charge out of it -- provided you are of the male persuasion, that is. Jack Lemmon stars as Stanley Ford, a successful cartoonist and a confirmed bachelor who shares a lavish Read More

1965
Goodbye Charlie

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds, Pat Boone, Joanna Barnes, Ellen Burstyn, Ellen McRae

Synopsis: George Axelrod's Goodbye Charlie flopped on Broadway with Lauren Bacall in the lead, but fared a little better as a film vehicle for Debbie Reynolds. Charlie (Harry Madden) is an inveterate philanderer who is shot dead by jealous husband Walter Matthau. Through a celestial fluke, Charlie's soul Read More

1964
Paris When It Sizzles

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Noël Coward, Gregoire Aslan, Raymond Bussières, Christian Duvallex

Synopsis: Richard Quine directs George Axelrod's acerbic script (adapted from Julien Duvivier's La Fête à Henriette) in this romantic comedy that reunites William Holden and Audrey Hepburn for the first time since 1954's Sabrina. Holden plays Richard Benson, a Hollywood screenwriter being pressured by movie Read More

1964
The Manchurian Candidate

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva

Synopsis: An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War Read More

1962
Breakfast at Tiffany's

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: In an idealized New York City during the early '60s, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is a charming socialite with a youthful zest for life who lives alone in a nearly bare apartment. She has such a flippant lifestyle that she won't even give her cat a name, because that would be too much of a Read More

1961
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Jayne Mansfield, Tony Randall, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, Mickey Hargitay, John Williams

Synopsis: Jayne Mansfield recreated her starmaking stage role in this film adaptation of George Axelrod's Broadway comedy. Mansfield plays a Monroe-like movie queen whom adman Tony Randall hopes to sign for a product endorsement. Through a fluke, the press believes that Randall is having an affair with Read More

1957
Oh! For a Man!

Crew: Play Author

1957
Bus Stop

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart

Synopsis: In this cinemadaptation of William Inge's Broadway comedy Bus Stop, Marilyn Monroe is cast as Cherie, a fifth-rate nightclub chanteuse who captures the heart of Montana rodeo champ Bo (Don Murray). He, in turn, kidnaps Cherie and bundles her off to the roadside bus stop of the title. Gradually Read More

1956
The Seven Year Itch

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts, Robert Strauss

Synopsis: Like thousands of other Manhattanites, Tom Ewell annually packs his wife (Evelyn Keyes) and children off to summer vacation, staying behind to work at the office. This particular summer, the lonely Ewell begins fantasizing about the many women he'd foresworn upon getting married (in one of the Read More

1955
Phffft!

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Jack Carson, Kim Novak, Luella Gear

Synopsis: After several years of domestic squabbles, the marriage of Nina and Robert Tracy (Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon) goes "phffft"! Upon receiving their divorce papers, Nina and Robert are certain that they'll remain friends, no matter how many new lovers they pick up along the way. Nina dallies briefly Read More

1954