David Loeb Goodis was born March 2, 1917, in Philadelphia. After working for an advertising agency, he published his first novel, Retreat from Oblivion, in 1939. He then moved to New York City where he wrote for the pulps, sometimes turning out 10,000 words a day. By 1942, Goodis relocated to Hollywood, where he began scripting radio adventure serials. After the success of his novel Dark Passage and its subsequent filming with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, he signed a six-year contract with Warner Bros. Discouraged by the experience, Goodis returned to Philadelphia in 1950, living with his parents and prowling the seedier streets at night. Here he wrote his only solely authored screenplay—for The Burglar—and the majority of his paperback original noir classics. Goodis died at age 49 in Philadelphia on January 7, 1967, from a cerebral vascular accident caused in part by a previous beating he received while resisting a robbery.