Anita Loos was born Corinne Anita Loos in Northern California. From the time she was a child until her mid-20s, Loos acted with various stock theater companies, first in San Francisco, then in San Diego after her father began managing a theater company there. Her father suggested she try writing one-act plays and, following the success of her play “The Ink Well,” she tried her hand at writing for film as well. In 1911, Biograph Company purchased her first script, and the following year began regularly producing numerous shorts based on her scripts. A number of these shorts were directed by D.W. Griffith, who admired Loos’ witty intertitles, leading Griffith to offer Loos a writing contract with the newly established Triangle Film Corp. as well as hiring her to write the titles for his own INTOLERANCE (1916). While under contract at Triangle, Loos began a professional association with director John Emerson, who she would later marry. The two worked on many films together, frequently for Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Constance Talmadge, with Emerson often credited as co-screenwriter, though his script contributions are questionable. When Loos was hired to write for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1930s, her work with her husband waned, and her most notable credits, including RED HEADED WOMAN (1932), SAN FRANCISCO (1936), and THE WOMEN (1939), were written by Loos alone or in collaboration with others.

Although Loos’ screenwriting career spanned the silent and sound era and resulted in more than 100 produced scripts, she is perhaps most recognized for her writing outside the realm of filmmaking. Her best-known work, the novel “Gentleman Prefer Blondes,” was published in 1925 and was adapted as a stage play and silent film, both credited to Loos and Emerson. Loos, with Joseph Fields, adapted the novel into a popular stage musical starring Carol Channing in 1949, which was then adapted by Charles Lederer for the successful 1953 film version starring Marilyn Monroe. She continued to write for the stage, including “Happy Birthday,” a comedy written for her friend Helen Hayes, who won a Tony award for her performance in 1947, and “Gigi,” her adaptation of Colette’s novel staged in 1951 and starring Audrey Hepburn. Her works of non-fiction include two popular memoirs, “A Girl Like I,” detailing her life during the silent film era, and “Kiss Hollywood Good-By,” chronicling her time writing for MGM during the 1930s and 1940s.