Who was the third credited writer on Sunset Boulevard, with Wilder and Charles Brackett?

D. M. Marshman Jr. was the third credited writer on Sunset Boulevard, alongside Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. His contribution helped shape the film’s central relationship between a struggling young screenwriter and an aging silent-film star.

Marshman was working as a writer and film critic when Wilder and Brackett noticed a critique he had written of their film The Emperor Waltz. They hired him in August 1948 to help develop Sunset Boulevard. One of his important contributions was the idea of making the male lead a gigolo, deepening the story’s themes of dependency, exploitation, and Hollywood ambition.

The film’s official writing credit names Wilder, Brackett, and D. M. Marshman Jr. Samuel A. Taylor later became associated with other screen projects, while Walter Reisch and Ben Hecht were prominent screenwriters in their own right, but none was the third credited writer of this film. Marshman shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Wilder and Brackett.