Biography

The older brother of writer/producer/director Garson Kanin, Michael Kanin was a fine talent in his own right. After serving a creative apprenticeship writing and acting in Catskill resort shows with his brother, Kanin worked as a commercial artist and musician. In 1939 he was signed to a screenwriting contract at RKO, where he met his future wife and frequent collaborator 'Fay Mitchell'. With another collaborator, Ring Lardner Jr., he won an Academy Award for his work on MGM's Woman of the Year (1942), and later received a best screenplay Oscar nomination (along with his wife) for the 1958 Clark Gable-Doris Day comedy Teacher's Pet (1958). Kanin went on to produce the popular Ronald Colman melodrama A Double Life (1947), written by his brother Garson and Ruth Gordon, and made a once-only stab at directing with the 1951 seriocomedy When I Grow Up (1951). After 1960, his work showed signs that he was a bit out of touch with contemporary audiences; he retired shortly after working on the anachronistic Bob Hope vehicle How to Commit Marriage (1969).