Bernard Gordon (writer)
| Bernard Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 29, 1918 New Britain, Connecticut |
| Died | May 11, 2007 (aged 88) Hollywood, California |
| Pen name | Raymond T. Marcus, partly |
| Occupation | writer |
| Language | english |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | American |
| Notable works | Flesh and Fury, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 55 Days at Peking |
| Spouse | Jean Lewin |
Bernard Gordon (October 29, 1918 – May 11, 2007) was an American writer and producer. For much of his 27-year career, he toiled in obscurity, prevented from taking screen credit by the Hollywood Blacklist. Among his best-known works are screenplays for Flesh and Fury, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and 55 Days at Peking.
Gordon was born in New Britain, Connecticut to Kitty and William Gordon, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father managed a hardware store and Gordon grew up in New York City, where he attended the City College.
Beginning as a writer for print, Gordon moved to California and got a production job as a script reader, providing written "coverage" of screenplays submitted to studios. A political activist and, briefly in the 1940s, a member of the Communist Party, Gordon helped found the Screen Readers Guild. He married fellow activist Jean Lewin in 1946, one of the organizers of the Hollywood Canteen during the war.
His first produced screenplay was Flesh and Fury, a gritty boxing picture starring an up-and-coming actor named Tony Curtis. A western with Rock Hudson (The Lawless Breed) followed, but Gordon was subpoenaed to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigating Communist influence in Hollywood. Although subpoenaed, Gordon was never called to testify, and thus remained in a legal limbo. His producer, William Alland, had named Gordon in his own testimony to HUAC. A former left-wing sympathizer himself, Alland regularly informed the government about the political leanings of writers with whom he dealt at Universal Pictures.
...
Wikipedia