Preston Sturges led an unlikely life that mirrored the plots of his best films. He was born into a wealthy family but had a varied career, inventing products and unsuccessfully pursuing inventions after being forced out of his family's company. He began writing stories and plays in the 1920s-1930s. Moving to Hollywood in 1932, he found success as a writer and director at Paramount in the early 1940s. However, later commercial failures and a reputation as an perfectionist led him to make his last film in France before dying in 1959.

1. Writing in
creative media

2. Film writer
Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best
work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on
stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf
that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti).
He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI. Upon his return
to Maison Desti, he invented a kissproof lipstick, Red-Red Rouge, in
1920. Shortly after his first marriage, his mother demanded that he
return control of the company to her. Kicked out of Maison Desti, he
turned to inventing. A tickertape machine, an intaglio photo-etching
process, an automobile and an airplane were among his some of his
commercially unsuccessful inventions. He began writing stories and,
while recovering from an appendectomy in 1929, wrote his first play,
"The Guinea Pig". In financial trouble over producing his plays, he
moved to Hollywood in 1932 to make money. It wasn't long before he
became frustrated by the lack of control he had over his work and
wanted to direct the scripts he wrote. Paramount gave him this
chance as part of a deal for selling his script for Down Went McGinty
(1940), at a cheap price. The film's success launched his career as
writer/director and he had several hits over the next four years. That
success emboldened him to become an independent filmmaker, but
that did not last long--he had a string of commercial failures and
acquired a reputation as an expensive perfectionist. He moved to
France to make what turned out to be his last movie, The Diary of
Major Thompson (1955). He died at the Algonquin Hotel, New York
City, in 1959.

3. Video game writer
Richard Dansky worked for four years as a game developer for White Wolf,
Inc. where he worked as developer on games such as Wraith: The Oblivion
and Vampire: The Dark Ages.[1] He also worked on the Mind's Eye Theatre,
Kindred of the East, and Orpheus game lines.[citation needed] He has
written, designed, or otherwise contributed to over a hundred role-playing
sourcebooks.[1] He is also credited with creating the humorous t-shirt
which reads "Don't Tell Me About Your Character",[citation needed] a
reference to the habit many role-playing game enthusiasts have of talking
at length about their player characters. His writing has also appeared in
sources such as the Green Man Review and Lovecraft Studies.
He lives in Durham, North Carolina where he works for Red Storm
Entertainment as "Manager of Design" as well as serving as "Central Clancy
Writer" for Ubisoft.[1] He has contributed to video games in series
including Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Rainbow Six: Black Arrow.[1] He
also contributed to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Far Cry, and Blazing Angels,
as well as helping to design the setting for the new Might and Magic
universe.
Dansky has published four media tie-in novels through White Wolf,
including Clan Novel Lasombra and the Trilogy of the Second Age for
Exalted. He has also written original fiction, including the novella Shadows
In Green from Yard Dog Press and Firefly Rain due out in 2008. Currently, he
is part of the Storytellers Unplugged blogging collective, as well as serving
as one of the executives of the IGDA's Writers Special Interest Group. In
2007 he contributed the opening chapter to Game Writing: Narrative Skills
for Videogames alongside other members of the IGDA Writers Special
Interest Group.
His namesake, Rich Dansky, appears as a player character in the scenario
"And I Feel Fine," by Geoffrey C. Grabowski, which was published in the
One Shots sourcebook for Unknown Armies. The fictional version of Dansky
is described as "a bohemian academic living the simple life of a trailer park
manager." Another role-playing game author, Rebecca Sean Borgstrom also
appears as a player character in the same scenario.

4. Comic book writer
Stan Lee[1] (born Stanley Martin Lieber, December
28, 1922) is an American comic book writer, editor,
publisher, media producer, television host, actor, and
former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
In collaboration with several artists, most notably
Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man,
the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, the X-
Men, and many other fictional characters,
introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a
thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic
books. In addition, he headed the first major
successful challenge to the industry's censorship
organization, the Comics Code Authority, and forced
it to reform its policies. Lee subsequently led the
expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a
publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
He was inducted into the comic book industry's Will
Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby
Hall of Fame in 1995. Lee received a National Medal
of Arts in 2008.