Richard Sale; Novelist, Screenwriter, Director

Richard Sale, novelist, screenwriter and director who frequently turned his novels, including “The Oscar” in 1966 and “The White Buffalo” in 1977 into films, has died, his former wife said Saturday. He was 80.

Sale died Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications after two strokes, said his ex-wife and writing partner, novelist and screenwriter Mary Anita Loos, whose aunt was Anita Loos.

Among the top suspense and comedy films that Sale wrote was “Suddenly” in 1954, starring Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden.

Sale directed such films as “Spoilers of the North” in 1947, “Half Angel” and “Let’s Make It Legal” in 1951, “My Wife’s Best Friend” in 1952, “The Girl Next Door” in 1953, and “Fire Over Africa” in 1954.

He also directed and co-scripted, most frequently with Miss Loos, the films “Campus Honeymoon” in 1948, “A Ticket to Tomahawk” and “I’ll Get By” in 1950, “Meet Me After the Show” in 1951, “Gentlemen Marry Brunettes” in 1955, and the British “Abandon Ship!” in 1957.

In the same period, Sale wrote or co-wrote such films as “Strange Cargo” in 1940, “Rendezvous with Annie” in 1946, “Northwest Outpost” in 1947, “The Dude Goes West” in 1948, “Mother Is a Freshman” and “Mr. Belvedere Goes to College” in 1949, “When Willie Comes Marching Home” in 1950, “Let’s Do It Again” in 1951, “The French Line” and “Woman’s World” in 1954, and “Torpedo Run” in 1958.

Born in New York City, Sale was educated at Washington & Lee University and began writing short stories, publishing more than 400 and earning his place on the honor roll for best short stories of 1935. He came west to work for Paramount in 1944.

Sale is survived by his wife, Irma; his son by Miss Loos, Edward Clifford Sale of Santa Monica, and two other children, Richard Townsend Sale of Hawaii and Lindsay Sale Bowen of Florida.