Biography

Josep Carner Ribalta was a Catalan poet, novelist, playwright, scriptwriter, filmmaker, publicist, translator, journalist, historian, painter and political activist. Over 30 of his works in Catalan and in English have been published, including his memoirs. He joined Paramount Pictures in New York in 1928 as a publicist and scriptwriter. Paramount sent him to Hollywood within a year to work on a number of films, where he wrote original scripts and adapted dialogues into Spanish. Notably, he contributed to the Spanish version of George Cukor's Grumpy.

In 1931 he returned to Barcelona to support the newly elected autonomous Catalan Government under the Spanish Republic. He worked as a special advisor to the head of the Department of Culture and Education. He represented the Department on the Nacional Cinema Committee and developed plans for a Catalan movie studio and cinema school. He wrote a primer on "How to Make a Movie" which was published in 1934. In 1936 he was appointed Commissioner for Theaters, Cinemas and Shows. He tried to modernize and raise the artistic quality of theater and movie presentations.

In 1937, with the violent disruptions caused by the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile with his family. He landed first in Mexico where he worked on films and musicals, notably the first Mexican Folkloric Dance and Musical Review, which premiered in New York in the summer of 1939. He also wrote the screenplay in Spanish for Rene Cardona's The Coward. He then moved to New York and worked for Twentieth Century Fox until 1949. Afterward, he started his own picture distribution agency which went bust. He went on to become the Director of Translations for the Berlitz Schools of Languages, first in Hollywood, then in Washington, D.C. He retired in Simi Valley and taught writing classes at Moor Park College, in Ventura County.
- IMDb mini biography by: George Carner (son)