Though Charles Brackett is best remembered for his collaboration with Billy Wilder, he was a man of many facets. He wrote and/or produced forty films; wrote five published novels; was decorated by the French army; owned several business; was president of a law firm, the Screen Writers Guild, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; was vice-president of a bank; and won five Academy awards.

Charles Brackett was born on 26 November 1892 in Saratoga Springs, New York. His parents were Edgar Truman Brackett, a distinguished lawyer and state senator, and Mary Emma Corliss Brackett. Little is known about Brackett's childhood except that he was raised in a well-to-do, conservative household. Years later he commented that "it was the theory of my parents that a child should vegetate, and I did."

His scholastic achievements included a baccalaureate from Williams College in 1915 and a law degree from Harvard...