Stanley Shapiro, 65; Producer, Oscar-Winning Screenwriter

Stanley Shapiro, Academy Award-winning screenwriter and producer of such glossy romantic comedies as “Pillow Talk” and “Operation Petticoat,” died early Saturday. He was 65.

Shapiro died of leukemia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to his close friend, Dr. Robert Miller.

Born in New York City in 1925, Shapiro wrote for radio and television before hitting his stride in Hollywood.

His screenplay for “Pillow Talk” in 1959, first teaming Doris Day and Rock Hudson, won him his Oscar.

That film was only one in a succession of hits Shapiro scored in the late 1950s and 1960s as writer and then co-producer and producer. He demonstrated a flair for comedic writing that provided popular vehicles for Day and Hudson, Cary Grant, David Niven, Marlon Brando, Charles Boyer and Dean Martin.

Among those films were “South Sea Woman,” “The Perfect Furlough,” “Operation Petticoat,” “Come September,” “That Touch of Mink,” “Bedtime Story,” “A Very Special Favor,” “How to Save a Marriage--and Ruin Your Life” and “For Pete’s Sake.”

Shapiro’s most recent film was “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” in 1988, starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin as a couple of con men in the south of France trying to out-con each other.

Shapiro also wrote plays, including “The Engagement Baby” in 1973, and novels such as “Simon’s Soul” in 1977 and “A Time to Remember” in 1987.

“Shapiro’s tale unfolds swiftly and deftly, not unlike a screenplay, never lingering too long with any one insight or emotion as if for fear the audience will get up and leave,” Dan Pyne commented in a review of the 1987 book for the Los Angeles Times. “There are marvelous passages and some strong, visual writing.”

Since 1985, Shapiro had headed his own Stanley Shapiro Productions.

He is survived by his daughter, Sesquia.