Richard Brooks was an Academy Award® winning screenwriter and director whose career spanned five decades. His most well-known films include “In Cold Blood” (1967), “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), “The Blackboard Jungle” (1955), and “Elmer Gantry” (1960), the last of which won Brooks an Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay. After Brooks' death in 1992, his estate donated his personal papers to the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library and his film collection to the Archive. The Richard Brooks Collection includes outtakes, production elements, and behind-the-scenes material from many of the writer-director’s films, as well as a large collection of bloopers from “Lord Jim” (1965), “The Professionals” (1966), and “The Happy Ending” (1969). The collection also includes promotional films, trailers, screen tests, and other research materials related to “In Cold Blood” (1967), such as Scott Wilson’s screen test, and “Dollars” (1971). The Archive has preserved three films from the collection, including footage of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall on their boat Santana, and unique Negro Leagues baseball footage featuring Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige. The collection is comprised of more than 200 items.
More information about Richard Brooks and the Richard Brooks Papers can be found at: Margaret Herrick Library.
Link to Satchel Paige on YouTube
Click here for a list of the Academy’s holdings related to Richard Brooks.