Trivia

He was working on his memoirs when he died suddenly, sick and alone, in a Manhattan hotel room. Ironically, to say the least, the working title of the book he left behind was "The Events Leading Up To My Death".

When he was at his peak at Paramount in the mid-1940s he was not only the highest-paid screenwriter but one of the highest-paid people in America.

He was a womanizer who struggled in most of his serious sexual relationships. Part of his aversion to monogamy was that his mother often carried on affairs with several different men and women at the same time while she was raising him.

Did not start writing until he was 30 years old.

His mother, Mary d'Este, was for a time the lover of the notorious Aleister Crowley, whose dislike for the young Sturges was heartily reciprocated, and they each came in for harsh criticism in the other's memoirs. She was also the best friend of controversial dancer Isadora Duncan.

Credited with bolstering the careers and maximizing the talents of Barbara Stanwyck and Brian Donlevy as well as turning the spotlight on some faded stars such as Rudy Vallee and Edgar Kennedy.

In the 1950s Katharine Hepburn acquired the rights to George Bernard Shaw's play "The Millionairess" and tried to put together a version in which she would have starred and Sturges would have directed. However, no producer or studio would finance the project with Sturges attached to it, and "The Millionairess" was ultimately filmed by Anthony Asquith with Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers as the stars.

Sold Paramount Pictures the rights to The Great McGinty (1940) for $1.00 with the agreement that he direct the film.

In the late 1940, he formed a production company with eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes, California Pictures,. but it ended suddenly when Hughes changed his mind. The only product of their brief union was Sturges' The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) starring Harold Lloyd.

He once owned a nightclub on the Sunset Strip called The Players. He met and later married his fourth wife, Sandy Sturges (born Sandy Nagle) in the place. She did not know he was the owner when they met, thinking he was just another employee.

In the sound era he was the first great writer to became a director.

Was voted the 28th Greatest Director of all time by "Entertainment Weekly". With only 13 films to his credit, he directed even fewer movies than Stanley Kubrick.

He has directed four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) and Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). He wrote all of those films in addition to The Power and the Glory (1933), which is also in the registry.

Died alone of a heart attack in his room at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC. His last meal was room service coleslaw and beer.

Appears as a character in John Kessel's story "The Miracle of Ivar Avenue".

Ex son in law of Marjorie Merriweather Post and Edward Bennett Close who's the grandfather of Glenn Close.

Interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, NY.

He was the first of the writer directors and was soon followed by such as John Huston, Billy Wilder, Nunnally Johnson, Samuel Fuller and Blake Edwards.

Seven of the eight movies he made for Paramount between 1940-44 were released in a Filmmakers Collection DVD box set in 2013.

Son Solomon Sturges was born in June 1941. Son P.G. Sturges was born in 1953. Son Tom Sturges (aka Thomas Preston Sturges) was born on June 22, 1956.

When he delivered the script for The Great Moment to Paramount they didn't know what to do with it and held up release for over a year.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 1085-1090. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Great-grandfather of Jack Enzo Kelly, born on September 6, 2001, to Shannon Sturges (his granddaughter) and Michael Kelley.

Grandfather of actress Shannon Sturges.