Monte Brice

Biography

Brice qualified as a mining engineer, after studies at Columbia University. He was eventually hired as sales manager for the Texas Oil Company, based in New York. This appears not to have worked out, since Brice popped up in Hollywood for his first spell, as a small part actor in comedies starring Pearl White, between 1913 and 1914. After several years absence, during which he devoted himself to other business interests, he returned to the film industry as a screenwriter in 1921. He then diversified as director of one- and two-reel shorts for Paramount from 1927 to 1930, occasionally doubling up as producer. After leaving Paramount, he directed W.C. Fields in his first talkie, the classic two-reel farce The Golf Specialist (1930). After 1935, Brice concentrated on screenwriting and creating original scenarios for feature films -- either solo or in collaboration -- and later became part of Bob Hope's team of gag writers. Brice was married to former vaudeville dancer and actress Doris Hill, whom he had previously directed in Casey at the Bat (1927).