Strauss was born in
Oklahoma on December 27, 1912. He worked in circulation at
The New York Times in the 1930s. His novel
Night at Hogwallow (Little, Brown & Co.,1937) was received positively by
The New York Times. Later he became the paper's "second-string film critic" (after
Bosley Crowther). In 1944, he left
The New York Times to work as a screenwriter at
Paramount. Strauss was known for his novel
Moonrise (Viking, 1946). It was first published serially in a magazine and then adapted for the 1948
film of the same name. He worked for
Life magazine and in 1956 was named editor of ''
Woman's Home Companion''. In 1957, he returned to the film industry in the eastern story department of
20th Century-Fox.
Robert Goldstein named him executive story editor at Fox in 1960. From the 1960s–1980s, he was known for television documentaries. Strauss and
Terry Sanders won a
Writers Guild of America Award for the film
The Legend of Marilyn Monroe (1966). He was nominated for an
Emmy for
I Will Fight No More Forever (1975) and he won an Emmy for
America Salutes Richard Rodgers: The Sound of His Music (1976). Strauss narrated the first hour of
Jacques Cousteau: Cries from the Deep (1982). A
Variety review said it was "dismally narrated" and elaborated that his "high-toned verbiage" spoiled the trip for viewers. A
Variety review of his 1986 effort,
Clue: Movies, Murder & Mystery, was critical: "Writer Theodore Strauss throws in so many subjects involved in fictional murder that the viewer is left wondering what the mystery is all about".
Personal life Strauss was married to Catherine Morrison; they had a son, Eric. Later Strauss married
Dorothy Comingore from 1947 to 1952; they had a son, Peter. Theodore Strauss died on October 30, 2009. == Novels ==