Richard Schayer was a prolific American screenwriter, born in 1880 in Washington, D.C. His father, Colonel George Frederick Schayer, was the Deputy Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C. His mother, Julia Schayer, was a professional writer known for her short stories. Schayer was a younger, maternal half-brother of the renowned poet Leonora Speyer, who won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Leonora's marriage made Schayer a brother-in-law of the British financier and music patron Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet. Schayer's career in the film industry spanned over four decades, from 1916 until his death in 1956. He wrote or co-wrote the scripts for nearly a hundred films, with a particular specialization in Westerns.
Schayer is primarily remembered for scripting the Gothic horror films "Frankenstein" (1931) and "The Mummy" (1932),which were both box office hits. He worked for various film studios in Los Angeles, including Universal Pictures, where he served as an executive under the control of co-founder Carl Laemmle.
After Laemmle lost control of the company in 1936, Schayer, along with several other associates, was pushed out by the new management. Despite this, Schayer continued working in the film industry until his death in Hollywood, Los Angeles, where he had spent much of his career.
Following his death, Schayer received several writing credits, partly due to the reuse of his scripts in remake films and partly due to the filming of his unused scripts.
