Dalton Trumbo

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:

    Privately, I believe in none of them. Neither do you. Publicly, I believe in them all.
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)

    One of the disadvantages of being a patrician is that occasionally you’re obliged to act like one.
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)

    The only kind of love worth having is the kind that goes on living and laughing and fighting and loving.
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)

    An animal can learn to fight, but to sing beautiful things and make people believe them....
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)

    Bankers, nepotists, contracts and talkies: on four fingers one may count the leeches which have sucked a young and vigorous industry into paresis.
    Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)