Jean Rouverol
| Jean Rouverol | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 8, 1916 St. Louis, Missouri, US |
| Other names | Jean Rouveral |
| Occupation | Author, actress and screenwriter |
| Years active | 1934–2009 |
| Spouse(s) | Hugo Butler (1940–1968; his death); 6 children |
Jean Rouverol (born July 8, 1916) is an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.
Rouverol was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of playwright Aurania Rouverol (1886–1955), who created Andy Hardy and wrote many of the films in the MGM series. After being spotted in a high school production, Rouverol first acted in a Hollywood motion picture at the age of seventeen, appearing as W. C. Fields' daughter in the comedy It's a Gift (1934). She continued to perform mainly in supporting roles, making another eleven films until 1940 when she married screenwriter Hugo Butler.
With four children coming in quick order, Rouverol did not return to film acting but throughout the 1940s performed on radio, including playing Betty Carter on One Man's Family. While her husband was away serving in the U.S. military during World War II, she wrote her first novella, which she sold to McCall's magazine in 1945. By 1950, she had her first screenplay made into a film, but her career was interrupted as a result of the investigations by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) into Communist influence in Hollywood.
In 1943, Rouverol and her husband had joined the American Communist Party. In 1951, when agents for HUAC attempted to subpoena them, Rouverol and her husband chose self-exile to Mexico with their four small children rather than face a possible prison sentence, as endured by some of their friends who were dubbed the Hollywood Ten. Labeled as subversives and dangerous revolutionaries by the government, they did not return to the United States on a permanent basis for thirteen years, during which time they had two more children.
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