Dalton Trumbo
James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter and novelist. As one of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry. Trumbo won two Academy Awards while blacklisted; one was originally given to a front writer, and one was awarded to "Robert Rich," Trumbo's pseudonym.
Blacklisting effectively ended in 1960 when it lost credibility. Trumbo was publicly given credit for two blockbuster films: Otto Preminger made public that Trumbo wrote the screenplay for the smash hit, Exodus, and Kirk Douglas publicly announced that Trumbo was the screenwriter of Spartacus. Further, President-elect John F. Kennedy crossed picket lines to see the movie.
His son Christopher Trumbo wrote a play based on his letters during the period of the blacklist, entitled Red, White and Blacklisted (2003), produced in New York in 2003. He adapted it as a film, adding material from documentary footage, Trumbo (2007).
On December 19, 2011, The Writers Guild of America announced that Trumbo will get full credit for his work on the screenplay of the 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday, sixty years after the fact.
Read more about Dalton Trumbo: Early Life, Career, Involvement With Communism, Later Life, Academy Awards, Personal Life, Death, Works
Famous quotes by dalton trumbo:
“Weve got to figure these things a little bit different than most people. Yknow, theres something about going out in a plane that beats any other way.... A guy that washes out at the controls of his own ship, well, he goes down doing the thing that he loved the best. It seems to me that thats a very special way to die.”
—Dalton Trumbo (19051976)
“May I suggest Ethiopian?”
—Dalton Trumbo (19051976)
“Now listen, buddy, there are a few corny ideas you got to get out of your head if youre going to fly an airplane. Most things are just the reverse from what people think. The higher you are the safer you are. The Earth down there, that, thats your enemy because once you hit that, boy, you splatter.”
—Dalton Trumbo (19051976)
“Well free every slave in every town and region. Can anybody get a bigger army than that?”
—Dalton Trumbo (19051976)
“Have you ever been up in your plane at night, alone, somewhere, 20,000 feet above the ocean?... Did you ever hear music up there?... Its the music a mans spirit sings to his heart, when the earths far away and there isnt any more fear. Its the high, fine, beautiful sound of an earth-bound creature who grew wings and flew up high and looked straight into the face of the future. And caught, just for an instant, the unbelievable vision of a free man in a free world.”
—Dalton Trumbo (19051976)