Biography
John Monk Saunders was an American screenwriter, novelist and film director. He began his career as a journalist with the Los Angeles Times and New York Tribune before becoming an associate editor at American Magazine. His first screen credit came in 1925 with Too Many Kisses.
Saunders supplied the original story for Wings (1927), the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. His story 'The Dock Walloper' was adapted as The Docks of New York (1928), directed by Josef von Sternberg. He also wrote the story for The Dawn Patrol (1930), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Story; a later version appeared in 1938.
Other credits include The Legion of the Condemned (1928), The Last Flight (1931) and Ace of Aces (1933). He adapted his own novel Single Lady for the screen and contributed to the documentary Conquest of the Air (1936), which he co-directed. Saunders was married to the actress Fay Wray from 1928 until their divorce in 1939; they had one daughter.
