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Walter Bernstein

Walter Bernstein

Biography

In February 1941, Bernstein was drafted into the U.S. Army. Eventually attaining the rank of Sergeant, he spent most of World War II as a correspondent on the staff of the Army newspaper Yank, filing dispatches from Iran, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Sicily and Yugoslavia. He wrote of his experiences in Palestine in an article entitled "War and Palestine". Bernstein wrote a number of articles and stories based on his experiences in the Army, many of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. These were collected in Keep Your Head Down, his first book, published in 1945. Bernstein first came to Hollywood in 1947, under a ten-week contract with writer-producer-director Robert Rossen at Columbia Pictures. Following that stint, he worked for a while for producer Harold Hecht, which resulted in his first screen credit, shared with Ben Maddow, for their adaptation of the Gerald Butler novel Kiss the Blood Off My Hands for the 1948 Universal film. He subsequently returned to New York, where he continued writing for The New Yorker and other magazines, and eventually found work as a scriptwriter in the early days of live television. In 1950, because of his numerous left-wing political affiliations and related activities, his name appeared in the notorious publication Red Channels, and as a result he found himself blacklisted. Throughout the 1950s, however, he managed to continue writing for television, both under pseudonyms and through the use of "fronts" (non-blacklisted individuals who would permit their names to appear on his work). In this manner, he contributed to several notable TV programs of the era, including Danger, the CBS News docudrama series You Are There and the mystery series Colonel March of Scotland Yard. (It has been incorrectly stated in some sources that Bernstein's blacklisting resulted from "unfriendly" testimony given to HUAC in 1951, but in fact he was not subpoenaed by the Committee until the late 1950s, and never actually testified.) His screenwriting career began to rebound from the blacklist when director Sidney Lumet hired him to write the screenplay for the 1959 Sophia Loren movie That Kind of Woman. From then on Bernstein was able to work openly on films such as Paris Blues (1961) and Fail-Safe (1964). He also contributed, without receiving credit, to the screenplays of The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Train (1964), and was one of several writers who worked on the script for the ill-fated Something's Got to Give, which was left uncompleted at the time of the death of its star, Marilyn Monroe, in 1962.

Personal Info

Gender

Male

Birthday

1919-08-20

Place of Birth

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Images

image

Cast


Crew

A War in Hollywood

A War in Hollywood

20096.8 / 10

On Cukor

On Cukor

20000.0 / 10

Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days

Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days

20017.0 / 10

Trumbo

Trumbo

20076.7 / 10

Annie Hall

Annie Hall

19777.7 / 10

Guns for Hire: The Making of 'The Magnificent Seven'

Guns for Hire: The Making of 'The Magnificent Seven'

20006.8 / 10

The Tramp and the Dictator

The Tramp and the Dictator

20026.9 / 10

Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'Johnny Guitar'

Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'Johnny Guitar'

20160.0 / 10

Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream

Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream

19986.8 / 10

Revisiting 'Fail-Safe'

Revisiting 'Fail-Safe'

20000.0 / 10

Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin

Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin

20030.0 / 10

Imitation of Life: The Blacklist History of High Noon

Imitation of Life: The Blacklist History of High Noon

20160.0 / 10

Fail Safe

Fail Safe

19647.8 / 10

The Front

The Front

19767.0 / 10

The Train

The Train

19647.5 / 10

Semi-Tough

Semi-Tough

19775.6 / 10

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands

19486.6 / 10

Fail Safe

Fail Safe

20007.0 / 10

The Wonderful Country

The Wonderful Country

19596.0 / 10

Paris Blues

Paris Blues

19616.5 / 10

Heller in Pink Tights

Heller in Pink Tights

19605.7 / 10

Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules

Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules

19914.0 / 10

The Money Trap

The Money Trap

19654.9 / 10

Doomsday Gun

Doomsday Gun

19945.5 / 10

Little Miss Marker

Little Miss Marker

19806.5 / 10

Miss Evers' Boys

Miss Evers' Boys

19976.3 / 10

That Kind of Woman

That Kind of Woman

19595.9 / 10

The Betsy

The Betsy

19784.4 / 10

The House on Carroll Street

The House on Carroll Street

19885.8 / 10

The Molly Maguires

The Molly Maguires

19706.3 / 10

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

19607.5 / 10

The Affair

The Affair

19953.8 / 10

A Breath of Scandal

A Breath of Scandal

19605.1 / 10

Yanks

Yanks

19795.9 / 10

Durango

Durango

19995.0 / 10

An Almost Perfect Affair

An Almost Perfect Affair

19794.5 / 10

Something's Got to Give

Something's Got to Give

19628.5 / 10