Born Thomas Leo McCarey in Los Angeles, CA. A graduate of USC's law school, he had just begun practicing his profession when he entered films in 1918 as assistant director to Tod Browning on THE VIRGIN OF STAMBOUL (1920). He continued working in films in various capacities until 1923, when he joined Hal Roach as gag writer and director of Charlie Chase comedy shorts. By 1926 he was vice president and supervisor of comedy production at the Roach studios. He thus supervised and wrote the stories for most of Laurel and Hardy's silent shorts (he is responsible for the original teaming of Laurel and Hardy, not Mack Sennett as some have claimed) and himself directed four of these, which are among the comedy team's best. In 1929, McCarey turned to feature films and soon imposed his own brand of undisciplined, frantic comedy on such comic screen personalities as Eddie Cantor (THE KID FROM SPAIN, 1932), the Marx Brothers (in what is probably one of their two best films, DUCK SOUP, 1933), W.C. Fields (SIX OF A KIND, 1934), Mae West (BELLE OF THE NINETIES, 1934), and Harold Lloyd (THE MILKY WAY, 1936). Blending an explosive sense of humor with unabashed sentimentality, McCarey came up with such comedy gems as RUGGLES OF RED GAP (1935) and THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) and such maudlin pearls as MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937) and GOING MY WAY (1944). Jean Renoir said of him: "Leo McCarey is one of the few directors in Hollywood who understand human beings." From 1937 he produced practically all his own films and wrote the stories or screenplays for most of them. He also supplied story material for such films as THE COWBOY AND THE LADY (1938), MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940), and MOVE OVER, DARLING (1963). He was the older brother of director Ray McCarey (1904-1948).

Nominated for Best Picture 1937: THE AWFUL TRUTH - Producer at Columbia (w. Everett Riskin)  Directing 1937: THE AWFUL TRUTH  Nominated for Best Picture 1939: LOVE AFFAIR - Producer at RKO Radio  Nominated for Writing (Original Story) 1939: LOVE AFFAIR (w. Mildred Cram)  Nominated for Writing (Original Story) 1940: MY FAVORITE WIFE (w. Bella Spewack & Samuel Spewack)  Best Picture 1944: GOING MY WAY - Producer at Paramount  Directing : GOING MY WAY  Writing (Original Story) 1944: GOING MY WAY  Nominated for Best Picture 1945: THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S - Producer at Rainbow  Nominated for Directing 1945: THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S  Nominated for Writing (Motion Picture Story) 1952: MY SON JOHN  Nominated for Music Best Song 1957: AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER "An Affair to Remember" - Lyrics (w. Harold Adamson) 12 nominations, 4 Awards