Unlike some screenwriters who feel they do not receive adequate recognition for their work, I. A. L. Diamond prefers to remain in the shadow of his cowriter, director Billy Wilder. Diamond is a talented man who deserves recognition, having helped to create such films as Love in the Afternoon (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Apartment (1960).

Diamond was born Itek Domnici in Ungheni, Rumania. The family name became Diamond when the Domnicis immigrated to New York in 1929, settling in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Diamond's first name was changed early on to Isadore by a grammar-school teacher who did not like saying Itek. When asked his name today, he replies "Iz" or "Isadore." His teens were spent at Boys' High School in Brooklyn, where he became a mathematics wizard. He parlayed this talent into championships in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in 1936 and 1937. By the time...