Guy Samuel Endore American screenwriter and novelist Date of Birth: 04.07.1900 Country: USA

Biography of Guy Samuel Endor

Guy Samuel Endor was an American screenwriter and novelist, best known for his novel "The Werewolf of Paris" (1933). Born on July 4, 1900 in New York, he was originally named Samuel Goldstein. His father, Isidor Goldstein, was a miner and inventor from Pittsburgh. When Endor was four years old, his mother committed suicide. To escape their difficult past, Isidor changed the family name to Endor and placed the children in a Methodist orphanage. Soon, Isidor was able to sell one of his inventions and had a dream in which his deceased wife urged him to give the children a European education. He immediately sent them to Vienna under the care of a Catholic governess. However, five years later, Isidor disappeared, the money ran out, and the children were sent back to Pittsburgh.

Endor managed to scrape together enough money to attend Columbia University. During his studies, he rented his bed to a wealthier student and slept on the floor. He graduated from the university with a Bachelor's degree in 1923 and a Master's degree in European languages in 1925. After completing his education, Endor married Henriette Portugal and they moved to Hollywood in the 1930s. There, he had a successful career as a screenwriter, including writing scripts for cult films such as "Mark of the Vampire" (1935) and "The Raven" (1935).

Endor was a member of the Communist Party USA, and in the late 1940s, he was interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although he did not become a victim of the "witch hunt" and avoided imprisonment, some studios put him on the blacklist. He had to write screenplays under the pseudonym Harry Relis, which was the name of his older sister's husband. After Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress, Endor became disillusioned with Soviet communism but retained his left-wing beliefs.

Endor passed away on February 12, 1970 in Los Angeles. His most famous work, "The Werewolf of Paris" (1933), is set during the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. In this novel, he essentially created a significant portion of the werewolf pseudo-mythology used in horror today, such as the idea that one becomes a werewolf after being bitten by another werewolf (a motif absent in folklore). It is often said that this book did for werewolves what "Dracula" did for vampires. The novel has been adapted into films such as "Curse of the Werewolf" (1961) and "Legend of the Werewolf" (1975).

Endor also translated the novel "Alraune" by H. G. Ewers into English, which was published in 1976.