Harold A. Winston

Harold A. Winston (August 28, 1901 – July 16, 1964) was an American stage actor and promoter, best known for his work as a dialog director at Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros.

Winston was born Harry Weinstein on August 28, 1901 to Jacob and Fanny Weinstein in Manhattan, NY. His parents and two teenage sons left Russia to escape the pogroms of the Czar. Two older siblings, Adolph and Sadie, were also born in New York. At age 19 he was listed as working as an editor in the publishing industry in New York City.

Harold Winston is variously described as an actor in NY, a promoter and a person who stages plays; a Dialog Director, a coach, and a scout in Hollywood. Howard W. Polsky wrote in his book "How I am a Jew—Adventures into My Jewish-American Identity", "In the twenties and thirties scores of Jews changed their name in part to disguise their identity. Weinstein became Winston…"

His earliest theatrical credit listed is "A Night in Avignon" in 1919. Other theater productions he performed in as an actor include: "The Claw" 1921-22, "Children of the Moon" 1923, "Bridge of Distances" 1925. He was involved in the staging of the plays: "Brass Ankle" 1931 about the multi-racial group known as Brass Ankles, written by Dubose Heyward the writer of Porgy and Bess; "The Other One" 1932; and "The Blue Widow" 1933

Moving to Hollywood he worked first at Columbia Studios and later at Warner Bros. In his autobiography Frank Capra called him one of his "needlers three", along with Joseph Sistrom and Chester Sticht: "These were my ‘needlers three"---Sistrom, Winston, Sticht. Their jobs: gadflys, deflaters, goaders. Their purpose: to keep me from being satisfied; nothing I did was good enough—I could do better. Their virtue—a fierce loyalty to me and my films."

Capra went on: "Winston was a refugee from the New York footlights, now serving as my dialogue coach. Winston was a gentle, sensitive soul who loved all that was beautiful, loathed all that was shoddy. As a purist in aesthetics his taste could discriminate between what was artistic and what was merely pleasing or utilitarian."

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