DIAMOND, I.A.L.

DIAMOND, I.A.L. (Itek Domnici; 1920–1988), U.S. film-scriptwriter. Born in Ungheni, Romania, Diamond was taken to New York, where his father changed the family name. A mathematics prodigy in high school, he studied engineering at Columbia University but took up writing and added the initials I.A.L. to his name. He wrote four college musical shows, and at graduation received an offer from Paramount studios in Hollywood. He collaborated with Billy Wilder on the film comedies Love in the Afternoon (1957), Some Like it Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), One, Two, Three (1961), Irma la Douce (1963), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), Avanti\! (1972), The Front Page (1974), Fedora (1978), and Buddy Buddy (1981). Some of Diamond's other film writing credits include That Certain Feeling (1956); Love in the Afternoon (1957); Merry Andrew (1958); and Cactus Flower (1969). In 1961 Diamond and Wilder won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay for The Apartment. In 1980, the Writers Guild of America gave Diamond the Laurel Award for Screen Writing Achievement. (Jonathan Licht / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)