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Agnes Brand Leahy

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Agnes Brand Leahy
Born
Agnes Laura Brand

(1893-08-18)August 18, 1893
Portland, Oregon, U.S.
DiedMarch 31, 1934(1934-03-31) (aged 40)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
OccupationScreenwriter

Agnes Brand Leahy (August 18, 1893 – March 31, 1934) was an American screenwriter active in the 1920s and early 1930s.[1]

Early life

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Agnes Laura Brand was born in Portland, Oregon,[2] and raised in Washington state, the daughter of Matthew Douglas Brand and Mila Hill Brand. Her father was a real estate agent.[3]

Career

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Leahy and her husband relocated to Southern California in 1918[3] and secured jobs at the Paramount studio, she as a stenographer and he as a production manager. She moved into editing work, and ultimately becoming a scenarist at the studio.[4] "The average studio stenographer has a profound knowledge of screen material, production costs and picture making," she explained in 1931.[5]

Over the course of her career, she worked with filmmakers like John Ford,[6] Dorothy Arzner,[7] Joseph L. Mankiewicz,[8] and Frank R. Strayer. She often wrote Westerns; she wrote one of the first talking pictures starring Gary Cooper, The Spoilers (1930).[9] She adapted a Zane Grey story with Keene Thompson and Edward E. Paramore Jr., produced as another Gary Cooper vehicle, Fighting Caravans (1931).[9] She also co-wrote a satirical comedy, Forbidden Adventure (1931), based on Sinclair Lewis's Let's Play King.[10] She worked with Sidney Buchman and Percy Heath to adapt a Rupert Hughes novel into No One Man (1932) starring Carole Lombard.[11] Her last movie was Lone Cowboy (1933), a Western for child star Jackie Cooper.[12][13]

Personal life

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Brand married Philip Frederic "Fred" Leahy in Seattle in 1913. The couple lived in Manhattan Beach with her widowed mother and younger brother.[3] After a prolonged illness and leave from Paramount, Leahy died in 1934, at the age of 40, at a sanitorium near San Francisco.[12] Her grave is in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.[14]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Hall, Mordaunt (March 26, 1928). "The Screen; An Imaginative Crook". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "Agnes Brand Leahy Called by Death". The Redondo Reflex. 1934-04-06. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c "Mrs. Agnes Brand Leahy". The Daily Breeze. 1934-04-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Mr. and Mrs. Fred Leahy Observe Anniversary". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1933-09-20. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Screen Typists' Jobs Coveted in Hollywood". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 1931-09-20. p. 46. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Noted Scenario Writers to Fox". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1926-02-19. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c "Feminine Touch Apparent in 'Get Your Man' at State". Reading Times. 1927-12-26. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
  8. ^ "On the Screen at the Obispo Theatre". The Tribune. 1931-07-11. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b c d "Torrence and Marshall to Repeat 'Covered Wagon' Roles". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. 1930-09-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ a b "Plenty of Laughs at Liberty Sunday". The Coeur d'Alene Press. 1932-01-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b Vermilye, Jerry (2023-11-14). Profane Angel: The Life and Career of Carole Lombard. McFarland. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4766-5160-6.
  12. ^ a b "Agnes Leahy's Death Mourned in Hollywood". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1934-04-03. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Western Story Stars Cooper". Scottsbluff Farm Journal. 1933-12-07. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Mrs. Leahy Funeral Conducted Privately". The Los Angeles Times. 1934-04-03. p. 27. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Palmer, Rollin (1932-09-24). "Lots of Vim and Vigor". The Buffalo News. p. 20. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Barnes, Eleanor (1931-10-23). "Chevalier is Sensation; Amazing Comics; 'Two Black Crows' Amuse". Daily News. p. 24. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Calamity Jane in Movies". The Sunday Oregonian. 1931-05-17. p. 47. Retrieved 2025-07-16 – via Newspapers.com.
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