Walter Hackett

Walter Laurence Hackett (usually referred to as Walter Hackett, sometimes given as Walter L. Hackett or Walter Lawrence Hackett, and erroneously given as Walter C. Hackett) (November 10, 1876 – January 20, 1944) was an American playwright and theater manager. A native of Oakland, California, Hackett attended grammar school in that city before continuing his education at a boarding school in Canada, the country of his father's birth. He ran away from that institution to become a sailor, and subsequently worked in a variety of professions including horse trainer and school teacher. By 1901, he was working as a journalist for the Chicago American, and that same year his first plays were staged with casts led by the actress Lillian Burkhart. His first significant play as a solo playwright was The Prince of Dreams, staged in Chicago in 1902.

Hackett was primarily active as a journalist and a writer of short stories until he had three successful plays in succession, written with other writers: The Invader (1908, co-authored with Robert Hobart Davis); The Regeneration (1908, co-authored with Owen Kildare); and The White Sister (1909, co-authored with Francis Marion Crawford). The latter two plays were his first works staged on Broadway. His next two plays to reach Broadway, Our World (1911) and Don't Weaken (1914) were flops, but he rebounded with the hit play It Pays to Advertise (1914). In 1911, he married the actress Marion Lorne. Many of his plays were written with Lorne in mind, and she was often the star of his works. In 1914, the couple moved to London, England where they remained for more than 25 years. From this point on, most of his plays were staged in London's West End, and he earned the nickname Walter "Long Run" Hackett for his many plays that had lengthy runs in London. In Britain some of his most successful plays included Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure, The Fugitives, and London After Dark. Not long after the outbreak of World War II, Hackett and his wife returned to the United States and settled in New York City. He died in Manhattan in 1944.