Editing Irving Rapper (section)

==Biography==
Born to a [[British Jews|Jewish]] family<ref>[https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=JPOST19451012-01.1.12 Jewish Post (Indianapolis): "Our Film Folks of Hollywood" by Leon Gutterman, ''Such a genius is slight, modest, dark-eyed Director Irving Kapper, the Jewish 'wonder man' at Warner Bros. studio.''" (12 October 1945)], newspapers.library.in.gov. Accessed 29 March 2022.</ref> in London, Rapper emigrated to the United States and became an actor and a stage director<ref name=NYT/> on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] while studying at [[New York University]]. In 1936, he went to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], where he was hired by [[Warner Bros.]] as an assistant director and dialogue coach. He proved invaluable in translating and mediating for non-native English-speaking directors. He made his directing debut with the 1941 film ''[[Shining Victory]]'', in which his friend [[Bette Davis]] appeared as a show of support for him. He would go on to direct her in four more films, ''[[Now, Voyager]]'' (1942) - selected, in 2007, for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]], ''[[The Corn Is Green (1945 film)|The Corn Is Green]]'' (1945), ''[[Deception (1946 film)|Deception]]'' (1946), and ''[[Another Man's Poison]]'' (1952).

Rapper's film ''[[One Foot in Heaven]]'' (1941) was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]]. Perhaps his best film in a studio other than Warner Bros. was ''[[The Brave One (1956 film)|The Brave One]]'' (1956) about a Mexican boy who must rescue his bull from a brutal fight against a top matador, which earned the then-blacklisted writer [[Dalton Trumbo]] an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for his original screenplay, despite being a box office failure.
Additional credits include ''[[The Voice of the Turtle (film)|The Voice of the Turtle]]'' (1947),<ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=The Voice of the Turtle (1947) 'Voice Turtle' Becomes Movie |author=T.M.P. |date=26 December 1947 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C05EEDE1E3BEF3ABC4E51DFB467838C659EDE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129154058/https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C05EEDE1E3BEF3ABC4E51DFB467838C659EDE |archive-date=2014-11-29 |url-status=dead |access-date=2025-02-13}}</ref> ''[[The Glass Menagerie (1950 film)|The Glass Menagerie]]'' (1950), ''[[Marjorie Morningstar (film)|Marjorie Morningstar]]'' (1958), and ''[[The Miracle (1959 film)|The Miracle]]'', a 1959 [[remake]] of the 1912 hand-colored, black-and-white film ''[[The Miracle (1912 film)|The Miracle]]''.

Biopics directed by Rapper include: ''[[The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944 film)|The Adventures of Mark Twain]]'' (1944), ''[[Rhapsody in Blue (film)|Rhapsody in Blue]]'' (1945),<ref name=NYT/> ''[[Pontius Pilate (1962 film)|Pontius Pilate]]'' (co-director, 1962), ''[[The Christine Jorgensen Story]]'' (1970), and his last film, ''[[Born Again (film)|Born Again]]'' (1978), about convicted [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] conspirator and former [[Richard Nixon]] aide [[Charles Colson]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-colonist-hollywood-is-born-again/165375961/ |title=Hollywood is Born Again |first=William |last=Scobie |newspaper=[[Times Colonist]] |publication-place=Victoria, British Columbia |place=Hollywood |page=5 |date=1978-12-04 |access-date=2025-02-13 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>