Photographer-Vandamm, New York · Public domain

With George S. Kaufman, wrote a string of Broadway hits in the 1930s, including You Can't Take It with You, which won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, before turning to directing — his staging of My Fair Lady in 1956 won a Tony Award, and he was still directing Camelot in 1960 when he suffered a heart attack during its troubled tryouts. His 1959 memoir, Act One, became a bestseller and was later adapted into film.