---
name: "MacKinlay Kantor"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/mackinlay-kantor"
fi1m_id: "mackinlay-kantor"
imdb_id: "nm0437969"
tmdb_id: 13569
wikidata_id: "Q1226282"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "4 February 1904"
died: "11 October 1977"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 88
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-25T04:36:28.591277+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# MacKinlay Kantor

## Identity

MacKinlay Kantor

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/mackinlay-kantor
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** mackinlay-kantor
- **IMDb ID:** nm0437969
- **TMDB ID:** 13569
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1226282
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKinlay_Kantor, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1226282, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0437969/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13569

Writer. Born 4 February 1904 in Iowa. Died 11 October 1977.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 4 February 1904, Iowa
- **Died:** 11 October 1977
- **Active:** 1946–1950
- **Average Fi1m score:** 88, as writer, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 90 (1), 1950s 86 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKinlay_Kantor, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1226282, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0437969/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13569

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*Gun Crazy*](https://film.one/film/gun-crazy.md) (86)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

MacKinlay Kantor was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. Born in Webster City, Iowa, he began his career as a reporter for the Webster City Daily News and later worked as a columnist for the Des Moines Tribune. He wrote numerous short stories for pulp and popular magazines before achieving recognition with historical novels such as Long Remember (1934).

Kantor wrote more than thirty novels, several set during the American Civil War. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for Andersonville (1955). His verse novel Glory for Me (1945) was adapted as the film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). He also wrote the short story on which Gun Crazy (1950) was based and received screenplay credit for the film.

During the Second World War Kantor served as a war correspondent and as a gunner in the US Air Force. He later worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Gun Crazy* (1950), Fi1m 86, Screenplay, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/gun-crazy.md)
- *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), Fi1m 90, Novel — [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md)

## Complete filmography (11)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Follow Me, Boys!* (1966), Novel
- *Wind Across the Everglades* (1958), as Judge Harris
- *Hannah Lee: An American Primitive* (1953), Screenplay
- *Gun Crazy* (1950), Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/gun-crazy.md)
- *The Romance of Rosy Ridge* (1947), Story
- *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), Novel — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md)
- *Gentle Annie* (1944), Novel
- *Happy Land* (1943), Novel
- *The Man from Dakota* (1940), Novel
- *Mountain Music* (1937), Story
- *The Voice of Bugle Ann* (1936), Author

## Gallery

- ![MacKinlay Kantor (1950)](https://film.one/media/person/1235316/gallery-1cd4ba85c975.jpg) MacKinlay Kantor (1950) — Florida Memory, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/MacKinlay_Kantor_%281950%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![MacKinlay Kantor](https://film.one/media/person/1235316/gallery-2f3918cc6274.jpg) MacKinlay Kantor — Florida Memory, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Novelist_MacKinlay_Kantor_playing_the_guitar.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1956: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (won), for *Andersonville*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/mackinlay-kantor