He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story for the 1936 film San Francisco.
[1] Hopkins was born in Ottawa, Kansas, and died in Hollywood, California, aged 80.
Lacking talent in plot construction, he would "literally prowl the lot and supply bits of dialogue as needed.
Some writers and producers even penciled 'Hopkins line here' into screenplay drafts, counting on MGM's resident wit for an appropriate ad-lib."
For nearly 2 decades at the MGM studio, he contrived most of the iconic one-liners of their films from the early 1920s and 30s.