His father, Von Mayes, was a lawyer, and his mother, Irene (née Haynes), was a teacher.

During World War II he worked as a welder in a Baltimore shipyard, and joined the Navy as a petty officer shipbuilder.

[4] An episode No Riders that he wrote for Pond's Theater received a good review in a Los Angeles newspaper and Billy Wilder hired him to work on the script to the film The Spirit of St.

[5] For Anatomy of a Murder, Mayes received a New York Film Critics Circle Award for best screenplay in 1959 and an Oscar nomination in 1960.

Wendell Mayes died of cancer aged 72 on March 28, 1992, in Santa Monica, California.