Lucille Fletcher

Lucille Fletcher was an American screenwriter and playwright. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Vassar College in 1933. In 1934, she began working at CBS as a copyright clerk and publicist. She first gained prominence when her story My Client Curly was broadcast on the Columbia Workshop radio drama series. In 1941, Orson Welles’ radio company performed The Hitch-Hiker, about a man and the mysterious stranger he repeatedly sees along the side of the road as he drives across the country. She would go on to write several other radio dramas, including her most famous, Sorry, Wrong Number.

When the popularity of radio began to decline after the invention of television, Fletcher transitioned into writing novels. She also wrote one-act play versions of Sorry, Wrong Number and The Hitch-Hiker as well as Night Watch, a full-length suspense play. Fletcher’s style was characterized by suspenseful psychological thrillers. Sorry, Wrong Number received the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award and was turned into a 1948 film. She died in 2000 after a stroke.