Lesser Samuels (26 July 1894 – 22 December 1980) enjoyed a 20-year career as a Hollywood screenwriter.
He is best known for back-to-back Oscar nominations for the racial drama No Way Out in 1950[1] and Billy Wilder's lacerating critique of tabloid journalism Ace in the Hole the following year.[2]
Samuels also wrote and served as associate producer on the notorious Biblical flop The Silver Chalice - a film which its star Paul Newman deemed one of the low points of his career - in 1954.
Samuels co-authored the book for the 1960 Frank Loesser musical Greenwillow.