Lester Cole
| Lester Cole | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 19, 1904 New York, New York |
| Died | August 15, 1985 (aged 81) San Francisco, California |
| Occupation | screenwriter |
Lester Cole (June 19, 1904 – August 15, 1985) was an American screenwriter.
Born in New York City, the son of Polish immigrants to the United States, his father was a Marxist garment industry union organiser, and Cole was a dedicated socialist from childhood.
Lester Cole began his career as an actor but soon turned to screenwriting. His first work was "If I had a Million." In 1933, he joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Writers Guild of America.
In 1934, Cole joined the American Communist Party. He became one of the Hollywood Ten, who refused to answer questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about their Communist Party membership. Cole was convicted of Contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and sentenced to twelve months' confinement at the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, of which he served ten months.
As a result of his refusal to testify, Cole was blacklisted by studio executives. Between 1932 and 1947, Cole wrote more than forty screenplays that were made into motion pictures. After being blacklisted, just three screenplays were made into films and only after friends Gerald L.C. Copley, Lewis Copley, and J. Redmond Prior, submitted the screenplays under their names.
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