Biography

I.A.L. Diamond

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I.A.L. Diamond was born on June 27, 1920 in Ungheni, Romania [now Moldova]. He was a writer and producer, known for The Apartment (1960), Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). He was married to Barbara Diamond. He died on April 21, 1988 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

One story often told says I.A.L. stood for Interscholastic Algebra League because Diamond was a tri-state winner when he was in high school. Another says that he chose the three initials when the editors of the Columbia humor magazine, The Jester insisted he write under the name Ian because his Anglicized name 'Isidore' was too Jewish-sounding. Iz was always his nickname. Izzy was something he was called by people who did not know him well.
Graduated from Columbia University in 1941. Signed as a junior writer at Paramount for $75 a week. His apprenticeship ended, when he joined Warner Brothers as full screenwriter (1946-49). Subsequently with 20th Century Fox (1951-52). Had his most productive spell at United Artists in collaboration with Billy Wilder, 1958-66 and 1970-72.
In total, Diamond and Billy Wilder wrote the script for twelve films. Some featured characters engaging in an endless but friendly squabbling, such as Joe and Jerry in Some Like it Hot and Holmes and Watson in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Diamond's widow claims that these characters were based on her husband's relationship with Wilder.
His family emigrated to the United States from Romania when he was 9 years old.
New York, Connecticut and New Jersey Mathematics Champion, in 1936 and 1937.

[interviewed in 1982]: I think we are dealing with an audience that is almost functionally illiterate, that has grown up on television and comic books. According to a survey I read, a kid of eighteen will have seen some 30,000 hours of television. He has seen 700 movies. There's no indication as to how many books he's read, but I'd guess about one-and-a-half.
The only other mathematician I know of who became a writer is Lewis Carroll. I guess he had a good ear for a joke.
[interviewed in 1981 about changes in the film industry]: The old group who started the business wanted to make pictures to get class. Today, these men all come from Harvard and already have class, so they're only interested in making enough money to serve cocaine to their guests.

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