Preston Sturges was one of Hollywoods great filmmakers.
Born Edmund Preston Biden on August, 29 1898 in Chicago, Illinois, he was the first writer to direct his own script, and thus the credit "written and directed by" first appeared before his name in The Great McGinty.
He won the first Academy Award ever given for Writing Original Screenplay for that script.
He died August, 6 1959 in New York.
