Stephen Morehouse Avery was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 who wrote numerous Hollywood screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

s. His daughter is the actress Phyllis Avery

Phyllis Avery

Phyllis Avery was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Avery was born in New York City to Evelyn and author Stephen Morehouse Avery. Her father hailed from Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis. Her first role was as Marjorie in the 1951 film Queen for a Day based on...

.

Avery was born to Charles M. and Jesse Avery in Webster Groves

Webster Groves, Missouri

Webster Groves is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 22,995 at the 2010 census. The city is named after New England politician Daniel Webster....

, a suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 of St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

. The senior Avery was a cashier at an insurance

Insurance

In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...

 company. Stephen Avery attended the University of Missouri

University of Missouri

The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

 at Columbia

Columbia, Missouri

Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...

 and was employed in Detroit

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, before he began professional writing.

Avery wrote for national publications until 1933, when he began to specialize in screenplays. His work included Wharf Angel

Wharf Angel

Wharf Angel is a American drama film directed by William Cameron Menzies and George Somnes and starring Victor McLaglen, Dorothy Dell, David Landau, and Preston Foster...

(1934), Our Little Angel (1935), One Rainy Afternoon

One Rainy Afternoon

One Rainy Afternoon is a 1936 romantic comedy film directed by Rowland V. Lee, starring Francis Lederer and Ida Lupino and featuring Hugh Herbert, Roland Young and Erik Rhodes...

with Ida Lupino

Ida Lupino

Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...

 and Francis Lederer

Francis Lederer

Francis Lederer was a film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States.-Europe:...

 (1936),, The Gorgeous Hussy

The Gorgeous Hussy

The Gorgeous Hussy is a 1936 film directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor. The film's plot tells a fictionalized account of President of the United States Andrew Jackson and an innkeeper's daughter...

for Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, I'll Take Romance (1937), Four Mothers (1941), The Male Animal

The Male Animal

The Male Animal is a Warner Brothers film starring Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie.The film was based on a hit 1940 Broadway play of the same name written by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent. The screenplay was written by Stephen Morehouse Avery, Julius J. Epstein, and Philip G....

(1942), starring Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...

 and Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland

Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

 and based on a James Thurber

James Thurber

James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...

 play. and Deep Valley

Deep Valley

Deep Valley is a 1947 drama film starring Ida Lupino and Dane Clark. A young woman lives unhappily with her embittered parents in an isolated rural home until an escaped convict changes her dreary existence...

(1947), with Ida Lupino and Dane Clark

Dane Clark

Dane Clark was an American film actor who was known for playing, as he labeled himself, "Joe Average".-Early life:...

, the story of a lonely woman living on a farm who is smitten by an escaped convict.

Shortly before his death of a heart attack at his Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, apartment at the age of fifty-four, Avery penned the scripts for The Woman in White and Every Girl Should Be Married

Every Girl Should Be Married

Every Girl Should Be Married is a 1948 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant and Betsy Drake. -Plot summary:...

, a romantic comedy starring Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

 and Betsy Drake

Betsy Drake

Betsy Drake is an American actress, psychotherapist and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.-Early life and education:Drake, the eldest child of two American expatriates, was born in Paris, France...

. In 1935, he was nominated with Don Hartman for an Academy Award for writing The Gay Deception

The Gay Deception

The Gay Deception is a 1935 romantic comedy film starring Francis Lederer and Frances Dee. Writers Stephen Morehouse Avery and Don Hartman were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story.-Plot:...

, a film unrelated to homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 and not to be confused with two other comedy films with similar titles, The Gay Deceiver

The Gay Deceiver

The Gay Deceiver was a 1926 film directed by John M. Stahl. The film stars Lew Cody and Carmel Myers. The film is considered lost.-Plot:A deceiver leads the fast set in Paris and is involved in love affairs and blackmail until he mends his way for his daughter's sake.-Cast:* Lew Cody - Toto /...

(1926) and The Gay Deceivers

The Gay Deceivers

The Gay Deceivers is a 1969 gay-themed comedy film with a twist ending. The film derives much of its alleged humor through the use of stereotypes...

(1969). In the story, Mirabel, portrayed by Frances Dee

Frances Dee

Frances Marion Dee was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, The Playboy of Paris...

, wins a $5,000 lottery

Lottery

A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...

, a near fortune in 1935, and moves to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where she meets Sandro, played by Francis Lederer, a bellboy who is really a prince. The film was directed by William Wyler

William Wyler

William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...

.

Avery was survived by his wife, the former Marian Baldwin, and his only child, Phyllis Avery (born 1924), who launched her acting career in 1951. Among other stars, Phyllis Avery was cast opposite Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

, George Gobel

George Gobel

George Leslie Gobel was an American comedian and actor. He was best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show, The George Gobel Show, which ran from 1954 to 1960 .-Early years:He was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago, Illinois, His father, Hermann Goebel, was a...

, Richard Egan

Richard Egan (actor)

Richard Egan was an American actor. In some films he is credited as Richard Eagan.-Career:Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army as a judo instructor during World War II...

, Chuck Connors

Chuck Connors

Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....

, Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...

, and Ray Milland

Ray Milland

Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...

.