Richard Schayer, a product of Julia Schayer‘s second marriage, was born in DC, and worked as a newspaper journalist and an actor before serving in WWI. After the end of the war, Schayer became a screenwriter and rose to an executive position at Universal Pictures in Hollywood. His film credits include: The Dragon Painter (1919), The Illustrious Prince (1919), Across to Singapore (1928), Devil-May-Care (1929), Wild Orchids (1929), Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), Private Lives (1931), Trader Horn (1931), Night World (1932), The Mummy (1932), My Pal, the King (1932), The Mummy’s Hand (1940), Northwest Passage (with Laurence Stallings and Robert E. Sherwood, 1940), Black Magic (1949), and Kim (1950).
Schayer worked on over 100 films between 1916 and 1956 as screenwriter and dialogue editor. He is associated with a wide range of actors from this period, including Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Hoot Gibson, William Haines, Sessue Hayakawa, William Holden, Tab Hunter, Boris Karloff, Buster Keaton, Tom Mix, Robert Montgomery, Ramon Novarro, Mickey Rooney, Randolph Scott, Norma Shearer, Dean Stockwell, Spencer Tracy, Lupe Vélez, Orson Welles, and Cornel Wilde. Schayer’s films The Cameraman (1928) Hallelujah (1929) and Frankenstein (1931) were selected by the National Film Preservation Board as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films” for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
