Russell Rouse

Son of a New York-based assistant director, Edwin Russell, Rouse worked his way up from laborer and assorted low level studio jobs in Hollywood to screenwriter, director and producer with collaborator Clarence Greene. Rouse reputedly worked first as an uncredited screenwriter before writing the offbeat film noir, "D.O.A" (1950) and winning an Oscar for his original story for "Pillow Talk" (1959). Rouse's films are notable for their offbeat gimmicks: in "D.O.A" a man, dying from a slow-acting poison must find his own murderer before the poison kills him; his directorial debut, "The Well" (1951)