Richard Edward Connell was born to Richard Connel Sr. and Mary Miller Connell on October 17, 1893 in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York. Connell was the only male out of four children. Connell’s father was a reporter and editor of the Poughkeepsie News-Press. This is where Connell began to write at the age of ten. He was payed ten cents for every baseball story that he gave to the Poughkeepsie News-Press. Connell later became city editor of the newspaper and was paid sixteen dollars a week when he was eighteen. Connell grew up in a political house hold as well. After being editor of the Poughkeepsie News Press, Richard Connell SR. went on to become police commissioner, and after several failed attempts, became a Congressman from New York in 1910.

Richard Connell jr. spent a year at Georgetown University then left to work for his father as his secretary up until 1912 when his father passed away. He did finally return to college but decided to go to Hardvard where he was editor of The Lampoon and The Daily Crimson. While writing for these newspaper, Connell wrote a very berating article about a American newspaper editor who ended up suing Hardvard. Connell graduated from Hardvard in 1915. He went to work for the New York American, a newspaper whose editor was the one who sued Hardvard over Connells article. Around this time Connell enlisted in the army and served in the 27th New York Division. He spent a year in france and became editor of the camps newspaper, Gas Attack. After the war,Connell left the New York American to work for the J. Walter Thompson Company to write advertising copies.

In 1919 Richard Connell married Louise Herrick Fox and around this siame time sold his first short story and left the business of advertising. His stories were seen in some of the best magazined and newspapers of that time, such as the Saturday Evening Post. Connell and his wife decided to take up residence in California where he began writing screenplays for silent movies. He was taken under contract with such companies as Paramount and Universal.

The rest of his career was spent writing several short stories and screenplays that won him awards such as the O. Henry Memorial Award and other prestigious honors. The most Dangerous Game was one of his most famous works. It was not only made into a movie once by RKO studios who also made King Kong at the same time, but it was remade several times throughout the years.

Richard Connell died on tuesday, November 22, 1949 in his home in Beverly Hills from a heart attack. His stories still reached the screens even after his death and his memory of a literary genius still lives on.