Philip Epstein

Twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein were among the most reliable screenwriters of the sound era; they collaborated on a large number of projects, generally comedies and melodramas, many adapted from the stage. The stage adaptation that ensured them screen immortality was from an unproduced play called "Everybody Comes to Rick's," a wartime romance that was retitled Casablanca for Hollywood and won the brothers a Best Screenplay Academy Award for 1943. (Although a handful of writers worked on the screenplay, latter-day scholarship has determined that most of the film's wit can be attributed to the Epsteins' efforts.) Julius remained active in screenwriting after his brother's premature death, and received Academy Award nominations in 1972 (for writing Pete `n' Tillie) and 1983 (for his particularly witty adaptation of Peter DeVries' wry novel Reuben, Reuben.)

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia

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