Biography for
Richard Condon (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

18 March 1915, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

9 April 1996, Dallas, Texas, USA

Birth Name

Richard Thomas Condon

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Spouse

Evelyn Hunt

(1938 - 9 April 1996) (his death) 2 children

Trivia

Claimed he became a writer because he stuttered, which led him to learn a large vocabulary and to love words.

Early in his career, worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency, which led him into 22 years as a movie publicist, beginning with the position of Eastern Publicity Director for Walt Disney Productions.

Condon moved to Madrid to direct publicity for Stanley Kramer 's The Pride and the Passion (1957), which starred Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and Sophia Loren but which was unsuccessful, and Condon wound up with a bleeding ulcer. He was equally stressed publicizing The King and Four Queens (1956) starring Clark Gable, and his wife urged him to quit the profession.

Condon's 1958 novel, The Oldest Confession, about an art thief, was inspired by paintings he saw during the filming of The Pride and the Passion (1957), at El Escorial outside Madrid. In the vestry, the film lighting showed paintings by Goya, Velasquez, and El Greco high on the wall, which otherwise were not visible. His novel was adapted into the film The Happy Thieves (1962), starring Rex Harrison and Rita Hayworth.

Invented "Condon's Law," which says that "When you don't know the whole truth, the worst you can imagine is bound to be close."

He managed the publicity of the Disney hits Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), and Dumbo (1941).

In the 1950s, the Condon family lived in England, Spain, and France. During the 1960s, they lived in Geneva, Switzerland, and in 1971, they bought a house in Kilkenny, Ireland. In 1980, he moved to Dallas, Texas, to be near his daughter, and there wrote "Prizzi's Honor."

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 122-123. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Brother of Robert Condon, writer (ghostwriter of autobiography of Archie Moore), who was one of the guests present in the home of actor George Reeves on the night of Reeves's mysterious death.

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z