Educated at Lane Tech, Ken Englund was a magazine writer when he began dabbling in show business, writing sketches and special material for vaudeville, radio, and Broadway. Paramount Pictures brought Englund to Hollywood, where he contributed to big-budget, all-star musicals such as The Big Broadcast of 1938 and Artists and Models Abroad (1938). Over the next ten years, he would work at Columbia, 20th Century Fox, and RKO; during his stay at Sam Goldwyn's studios, where he collaborated on the screenplay for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Englund coined several of the "Goldwynisms" often attributed to the producer. For several years, Englund served as president of the Writers Guild of America West, writing and staging several of the WGA's annual awards shows. After several years in television, he penned one last screenplay, The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968). Ken Englund was the father of actress Patricia Englund.
by Hal Erickson
biography
