- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Marty
- Martin Rackin was born in New York City, New York, USA. He was the son of a silk mill owner, and started work as a hat store delivery boy. His work became lighter as a copy boy for the New York Mirror, where he became a publicist and speech writer.
When the United States entered WWII (1941), Rackin went to Hollywood and served his time with the U.S. Air Force, and that experience served as inspiration for several of his next screenplays. He continued writing for the movie industry, and became a director for eighteen episodes of The Red Skelton Hour (1951), where he befriended the comedy screenwriter John Lee Mahin.
In 1958, he started a production company with his friend Mahin, known as Mahin-Rackin Productions, which proved fruitful in terms of writing, and production, namely with The Horse Soldiers (1959), and North to Alaska (1960). That project too, came to an end as Rackin became head of production at Paramount (1960-1964), but his aim at independent production led him to leave, and start his own production company, Martin Rackin Productions.
He died on April 15, 1976 in London, England.
- IMDb mini biography by: Artemis-9
- Marty said his godfather was Damon Runyon, and his personal speech made that claim believable. He could speak in non-stop profanities in such a way that not only weren't listeners offended, but were doubled up in laughter.
- [on Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)] There are some actresses in this town who can roll in the gutter and it won't move you. They look at home there. But when you put a good girl like Ann in the gutter, it tears your heart out.
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