Arthur Laurents is a successful playwright who writes only occasionally for the screen. Most of his screenplays are romantic melodramas, ranging from the Gothic and bleak (Caught, 1949) to the elegant (Anastasia, 1956), to the socially relevant (The Way We Were, 1973).

Born in New York City, the son of Irving and Ada Robbins Laurents, he graduated from Cornell University in 1937. He started writing for radio and, after serving in the army during World War II, received a Variety radio award in 1945 for his Assignment: Home series. Also in 1945 he wrote his first play, Home of the Brave. Based on his experiences during the war, this play deals sentimentally, but honestly, with prejudice against a Jewish soldier.

His success as a playwright brought Laurents to Hollywood in 1948. The first screenplay he worked on was The Snake Pit (1948), but he had little to do with the final film and received no screen...