Editing Irving Rapper

{{Short description|American film director (1898–1999)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Irving Rapper
| image        = Irving Rapper (1898–1999).png
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1898|01|16|df=yes}}
| birth_place  = [[London, England]], UK
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1999|12|20|1898|1|16|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Los Angeles, California]], U.S.
| occupation   = [[Film director]], dialogue director
| years_active = 1929–1978
}}

'''Irving Rapper''' (16 January 1898 – 20 December 1999) was a British-born American [[film director]].<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|title=Irving Rapper|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/107586/Irving-Rapper|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925014101/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/107586/Irving-Rapper|url-status=dead|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2015|archive-date=25 September 2015}}</ref>

==Biography==
Born to a [[British Jews|Jewish]] family<ref>[https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=JPOST19451012-01.1.12 Jewish Post (Indianapolis): "Our Film Folks of Hollywood" by Leon Gutterman, ''Such a genius is slight, modest, dark-eyed Director Irving Kapper, the Jewish 'wonder man' at Warner Bros. studio.''" (12 October 1945)], newspapers.library.in.gov. Accessed 29 March 2022.</ref> in London, Rapper emigrated to the United States and became an actor and a stage director<ref name=NYT/> on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] while studying at [[New York University]]. In 1936, he went to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], where he was hired by [[Warner Bros.]] as an assistant director and dialogue coach. He proved invaluable in translating and mediating for non-native English-speaking directors. He made his directing debut with the 1941 film ''[[Shining Victory]]'', in which his friend [[Bette Davis]] appeared as a show of support for him. He would go on to direct her in four more films, ''[[Now, Voyager]]'' (1942) - selected, in 2007, for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]], ''[[The Corn Is Green (1945 film)|The Corn Is Green]]'' (1945), ''[[Deception (1946 film)|Deception]]'' (1946), and ''[[Another Man's Poison]]'' (1952).

Rapper's film ''[[One Foot in Heaven]]'' (1941) was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]]. Perhaps his best film in a studio other than Warner Bros. was ''[[The Brave One (1956 film)|The Brave One]]'' (1956) about a Mexican boy who must rescue his bull from a brutal fight against a top matador, which earned the then-blacklisted writer [[Dalton Trumbo]] an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for his original screenplay, despite being a box office failure.
Additional credits include ''[[The Voice of the Turtle (film)|The Voice of the Turtle]]'' (1947),<ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=The Voice of the Turtle (1947) 'Voice Turtle' Becomes Movie |author=T.M.P. |date=26 December 1947 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C05EEDE1E3BEF3ABC4E51DFB467838C659EDE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129154058/https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C05EEDE1E3BEF3ABC4E51DFB467838C659EDE |archive-date=2014-11-29 |url-status=dead |access-date=2025-02-13}}</ref> ''[[The Glass Menagerie (1950 film)|The Glass Menagerie]]'' (1950), ''[[Marjorie Morningstar (film)|Marjorie Morningstar]]'' (1958), and ''[[The Miracle (1959 film)|The Miracle]]'', a 1959 [[remake]] of the 1912 hand-colored, black-and-white film ''[[The Miracle (1912 film)|The Miracle]]''.

Biopics directed by Rapper include: ''[[The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944 film)|The Adventures of Mark Twain]]'' (1944), ''[[Rhapsody in Blue (film)|Rhapsody in Blue]]'' (1945),<ref name=NYT/> ''[[Pontius Pilate (1962 film)|Pontius Pilate]]'' (co-director, 1962), ''[[The Christine Jorgensen Story]]'' (1970), and his last film, ''[[Born Again (film)|Born Again]]'' (1978), about convicted [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] conspirator and former [[Richard Nixon]] aide [[Charles Colson]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-colonist-hollywood-is-born-again/165375961/ |title=Hollywood is Born Again |first=William |last=Scobie |newspaper=[[Times Colonist]] |publication-place=Victoria, British Columbia |place=Hollywood |page=5 |date=1978-12-04 |access-date=2025-02-13 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Death==
Rapper died on 20 December 1999 at the age of 101 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund home in [[Woodland Hills, Los Angeles]], he had been a resident at the home for four years.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/arts/irving-rapper-101-film-director-dies.html | title=Irving Rapper, 101, Film Director, Dies |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=B9 |date=30 December 1999 | last1=Lyman | first1=Rick |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-dec-29-me-48573-story.html | title='Now, Voyager' Film Director Irving Rapper Dies at 101 | newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=29 December 1999 |access-date=2025-02-13}}</ref>

<!-- ==Filmography== -->

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0710924}}
*{{Find a Grave|10298973|Irving Rapper}}

{{Irving Rapper}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapper, Irving}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:American men centenarians]]
[[Category:Film directors from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:American people of English-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:New York University alumni]]
[[Category:Film people from London]]
[[Category:Jewish centenarians]]