From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stephen Morehouse Avery (December 20, 1893 – February 10, 1948) was an American author of Hollywood screenplays. His daughter is the actress Phyllis Avery. Avery was born to Charles M. and Jesse Avery in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The senior Avery was a cashier at an insurance company. Stephen Avery attended the University of Missouri at Columbia and was employed in Detroit, Michigan, before he began professional writing. Avery wrote for national publications until 1933, when he began to specialize in screenplays. His work included Wharf Angel (1934), Our Little Girl (1935), One Rainy Afternoon (1936) with Ida Lupino and Francis Lederer, The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) with Joan Crawford, I'll Take Romance (1937), Four Mothers (1941), The Male Animal (1942), starring Henry Fonda and...read more