Dalton Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo
Trumbo at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947
Trumbo at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947
BornJames Dalton Trumbo
(1905-12-09)December 9, 1905
Montrose, Colorado, U.S.
DiedSeptember 10, 1976(1976-09-10) (aged 70)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation
  • Screenwriter
  • film director
  • playwright
  • essayist
  • novelist
Spouse
Cleo Beth Fincher
​
(m. 1938)​
Children3, including Christopher

James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus (both 1960), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten,[1] he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.[2][3][4][5]

Trumbo, the other members of the Hollywood Ten, and hundreds of other professionals in the industry were blacklisted by Hollywood. He continued working clandestinely on major films, writing under pseudonyms or other authors' names. His uncredited work won two Academy Awards for Best Story: for Roman Holiday (1953), which was presented to a front writer, and for The Brave One (1956), which was awarded to a pseudonym used by Trumbo.[6][7] When he was given public screen credit for both Exodus and Spartacus in 1960, it marked the beginning of the end of the Hollywood Blacklist for Trumbo and other affected screenwriters.[8] He finally was given full credit by the Writers' Guild for Roman Holiday in 2011, nearly 60 years after the fact, and 35 years after his death.[9][10]

  1. ^ "Hollywood Ten – Cold War". History.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  2. ^ "Dalton Trumbo". Biography. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  3. ^ "Dalton Trumbo". IMDb. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  4. ^ Day, Elizabeth (January 16, 2016). "Hollywood blacklisted my father Dalton Trumbo: now I'm proud they've put him on screen". The Guardian. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  5. ^ "Dalton Trumbo Facts". biography.yourdictionary.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  6. ^ "AMPAS Press Release". Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ AMPAS Oscar Trivia Archived December 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Rapold, Nicolas (November 4, 2015). "'Trumbo' Recalls the Hunters and the Hunted of Hollywood". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  9. ^ Cheryl Devall, Paige Osburn (December 19, 2011). "Blacklisted writer gets credit restored after 60 years for Oscar-winning film". 89.3 KPCC. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  10. ^ Verrier, Richard (December 19, 2011). "Writers Guild restores screenplay credit to Trumbo for 'Roman Holiday'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 20, 2011.