Richard J. Collins

Richard "Dick" Collins (July 20, 1914 – February 14, 2013) was an American producer, director and screenwriter prominent in Hollywood during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He worked on several notable television programs including Bonanza, General Electric Theater, Matlock and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre. He was married to actress Dorothy Comingore from 1939 until 1945. One of the characters in the Film "Guilty By Suspicion" was based on his character although he and Dorothy Comingore were long divorced before the HUAC hearings.

Richard Collins was born in New York City. He attended various schools in New York, Los Angeles and Paris, including the Browning School, Lycee Janson de Sailly, and Beverly Hills High School. Collins also attended Stanford University for a term and a half before moving back to New York with his family. In 1936, Collins took classes for six months with the New Theatre League, where he joined the Young Communist League, the first of many left-wing associations he made over the years. In 1935, Collins returned to Los Angeles where he took a job at Bloomingdale's while looking for a way into the movie and television industry.

Collins' first position was as a script reader at Columbia Pictures, where he stayed for a few months before he was offered a junior writer position at Fox. During the 1930s, Collins would work for some of the biggest studios in Hollywood, including RKO Pictures, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. He wrote or co-wrote many screenplays during this period, including some that would get him in trouble with HUAC in later years, like Song of Russia. He had a successful film career up until the Hollywood 19 were called to testify before HUAC in October, 1947. At that time he agreed with the rest of the so-called unfriendly witnesses to plead the First Amendment Rights of free speech. Only Ten of the nineteen were called and it wasn't until 1951 that Collins was again called before HUAC. By this time his politics had changed and he agreed to testify becoming one of the first "friendly witnesses.

...
Wikipedia