---
name: "Tess Slesinger"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tess-slesinger"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "16 July 1905"
died: "21 February 1945"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-19T23:32:26.531311+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."
---

# Tess Slesinger

Writer. Born 16 July 1905 in New York City. Died 21 February 1945.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 16 July 1905, New York City
- **Died:** 21 February 1945
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tess_Slesinger, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7705575, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0805756/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/592459

## Biography

Tess Slesinger was an American writer and screenwriter. Born in New York City on 16 July 1905, she studied at Swarthmore College and the Columbia University School of Journalism. She published fiction including the novel *The Unpossessed* (1934) and short-story collection *Time: The Present* (1935) before moving to Hollywood in 1935.

Her screenwriting credits include the adaptation of *The Good Earth* (1937) with Talbot Jennings and Claudine West, *The Bride Wore Red* (1937), *Dance, Girl, Dance* (1940) with Frank Davis, and *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* (1945) with Davis. She collaborated frequently with her second husband, producer and writer Frank Davis, whom she married in 1936. Slesinger helped establish the Screen Writers Guild.

She died of cancer in Los Angeles on 21 February 1945, aged 39.

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

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Good Earth* (1937), Fi1m 64, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/the-good-earth.md)

## Complete filmography (7)

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

- *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* (1945), Screenplay
- *Are Husbands Necessary?* (1942), Screenplay
- *Remember the Day* (1941), Screenplay
- *Dance, Girl, Dance* (1940), Screenplay
- *Girls' School* (1938), Screenplay, Story
- *The Bride Wore Red* (1937), Screenplay
- *The Good Earth* (1937), Screenplay — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-good-earth.md)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1946: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*

*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/tess-slesinger