PERRY, ELEANOR (ROSENFELD-BAYER-PERRY) (13 Oct. 1914-14 March 1981) went from writing whodunits with her first husband in Cleveland to writing screenplays for her second husband in New York and Hollywood. A Cleveland native, she earned a B.A. and M.S. from WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY and married local attorney Leo G. Bayer. With him supplying the plots and her doing the actual development, they co-authored several crime novels under the pseudonym Oliver Weld Bayer. They also had a thriller entitled The Left Hook produced at the CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE in 1952 and co-edited the non-fiction collection Cleveland Murders in 1947. In 1960 her career entered a new phase with her marriage to film director Frank Perry. Their first collaboration was on David and Lisa, for which her screenplay received an Academy Award nomination. Other films produced by the pair included Ladybug, Ladybug; The Swimmer, and Diary of a Mad Housewife. Following her divorce from Perry in 1971, she continued to do screenplays and co-produced The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. She also won two Emmys for television screenplays. Perry was one of the movie industry's most outspoken critics for its habitual depiction of women as victims. She died in Manhattan from cancer, survived by two children from her Cleveland marriage.
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