As reported by Variety, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Walter Bernstein – who was blacklisted in the ’50s but kept his career alive by writing pseudonymous lyrics – is dead. The news was confirmed by former Writers Guild Of America West president Howard Rodman, who in a social media post referred to Bernstein as a ‘legendary screenwriter’ and ‘one of the great people’. Bernstein was 101.
Born in Brooklyn in 1919, Bernstein began his writing career by doing film reviews while in college. He later worked as a correspondent for the army newspaper when he was drafted into the army during World War II and published stories about his experiences in The New Yorker after the war. He moved to Hollywood in 1947 and began working as a screenwriter, but it was not until a few years later, in 1950, that his support for left-wing political organizations led to his name appearing in a right-wing magazine called ‘ Red channels. Because of this and his status as a suspected communist sympathizer, Bernstein was blacklisted in the entertainment industry only a few years after first getting his foot in the door.
However, by writing under false names and working with writers who did not appear on the blacklist, Bernstein was able to secretly continue in television during the 50s. In the late 1950s, director Sidney Lumet ended Bernstein’s blacklist status by appointing him to write the Sophia Loren film. That kind of woman, which leads to more writing performances on projects such as Paris Blues, Failure, the 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven, The train, and even Must give something (Marilyn Monroe’s final film).
In 1976 Bernstein wrote The front, a film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Woody Allen as an unhappy restaurant employee who agrees to be a ‘front’ for blacklisted screenwriters who cannot find work. Bernstein received the Oscar nomination for the screenplay, which of course drew from his own life, and Allen later gave him a cameo Annie Hall.