Capable, veteran Hollywood scenarist whose floundering career was given a temporary boost as co-screenwriter of "Citizen Kane" (1941). Mankiewicz had hit his peak in the early 1930s producing, and contributing uncredited dialogue to, a number of Paramount's wildest comedies such as "Million Dollar Legs" (1932) and "Duck Soup" (1933). After "Kane" his career resumed its downward path, hastened by gambling debts and heavy alcohol consumption. Father of writer Don M. Mankiewicz and Canadian-based director Francis Mankiewicz, and brother of Joseph L. Mankiewicz.