Biography
James R. Webb was an American screenwriter. Born in Denver, Colorado, he graduated from Stanford University in 1930. He wrote fiction for national magazines including Collier's, Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post from 1936, and began screenwriting two years later.
Webb wrote the screenplay for How the West Was Won (1962), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. His other credits include The Big Country (1958), Cape Fear (1962), Pork Chop Hill (1959) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). He served as a major in the US Army in the European theatre during the Second World War and held leadership roles in the Writers Guild of America.
