Cornell Woolrich

Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (* December 4, 1903 in New York City; † September 25, 1968 ibid.) was an American writer, known primarily for his dark crime novels and detective stories. He played a major role in shaping the "hardboiled" type of black series and provided numerous models for film noir (screen)books. Woolrich also wrote under the pseudonyms George Hopley and William Irish. After his parents' divorce, Cornell Woolrich spent the first years of his life with his father Genaro Hopley-Woolrich, who worked in Mexico and Central America. At the age of 12, Cornell Woolrich came to New York City to live with his mother, Claire Attalie Tarler Hopley-Woolrich. He attended Columbia University sporadically between 1921 and 1926; he dropped out after the publication of his first novel, Cover Charge. After the publication of his second novel Children of the Ritz, Cornell Woolrich moved to Los Angeles to write the screenplay for a film based on the novel. However, the screenplay was then written by William Irish, whose name Woolrich later used as a pseudonym. In California, he married Violet Virginia Blackton, the daughter of film magnate J. Stuart Blackton. The marriage failed from the beginning due to Woolrich's homosexual tendencies and was later annulled. After the separation, Woolrich left behind a diary with details of his homosexual experiences. He himself moved back to his mother in New York in 1932 to the Hotel Marseilles. Shortly thereafter, Woolrich turned to crime fiction.He first wrote for penny dreadfuls in 1934, and in the 1940s and 1950s he produced his best-known and most successful novels.Despite ongoing tensions, Woolrich decided to stay with his mother until the end of her life in 1957.After his mother's death, Cornell Woolrich lived in various hotels in New York City, including briefly with his aunt Estelle Tarler Garcia at the Hotel Franconia. His health was failing, partly from excessive drinking and chain smoking. After an infection spread, he had to have a leg amputated in January 1968, after which he largely cut himself off from those around him.He even did not attend the premiere of the film based on The Bride Wore Black by François Truffaut. He died of a stroke on September 25, 1968, and is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.In the last years of his life, Woolrich was friends with thriller writer Michael Avallone (1924-1999), who was interviewed extensively as a contemporary witness in Christian Bauer's 1985 documentary Night Without Tomorrow. In memory of his mother, he donated his estate, worth $850,000, to Columbia University in support of budding journalists.