As reported varietyOscar-nominated screenwriter Walter Bernstein – who was blacklisted in the 1950s but kept his career alive by writing pseudonymous screenplays – has died. The news was confirmed by former Writers Guild Of America West president Howard Rodman, who referred to Bernstein as a “legendary screenwriter” and “one of the great people” in a social media post. Bernstein was 101 years old.
Bernstein was born in Brooklyn in 1919 and began his career as a writer reviewing films while in college. He later worked as a correspondent for the Army newspaper when he enlisted in the military during World War II, publishing stories about his experiences in New York after the war. He moved to Hollywood in 1947 and began working as a screenwriter, but only a few years later, in 1950, when his support for left-wing political organizations led to the printing of his name in a right-wing newspaper called Red channels. Because of this and his status as an alleged communist sympathizer, Bernstein was blacklisted in the entertainment industry just a few years after he first stepped into the door.
However, by writing under false names and working with non-blacklisted writers, Bernstein managed to continue to work secretly on television during the 1950s. In the late 1950s, director Sidney Lumet ended Bernstein’s blacklist status by hiring him to write Sophia Loren. That kind of woman, leading to several writing concerts on projects such as Paris Blues, Fail-Safe, the 1960 version a The Magnificent Seven, The train, and even Something has to give (Marilyn Monroe’s final film).
In 1976, Bernstein wrote Front, a film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Woody Allen as an unfortunate restaurant employee, who agrees to act as a “front” for blacklisted screenwriters who fail to work. Bernstein received an Oscar nomination for screenplay, which obviously came out of his own life, and Allen later offered him a cameo Annie Hall.