Walter Hackett

Born in Oakland, California, Walter Hackett was an American playwright and screenwriter whose career was closely tied to the commercial theater of the 1910s and 1920s. He wrote both plays and fiction, and his work reached a wide audience at a time when stage hits often became films.

Among his best-known works are It Pays to Advertise, The Barton Mystery, and Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure. His writing had a strong sense of pace and theatrical fun, which helped make several of his stage works attractive to filmmakers as well.

Hackett died in New York in 1944. He was married to actress Marion Lorne, and his name remains linked with a lively period of popular Anglo-American theater when mystery, comedy, and adaptation often went hand in hand.