Lester Cole

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Lester Cole (1947)

Lester Cole (born June 19, 1904 in New York City , † August 15, 1985 in San Francisco , California ) was an American screenwriter . He became known to the general public in particular as one of the Hollywood Ten .

life and career

Lester Cole was born in New York to a Jewish family of Polish origin. He left school at the age of 16 and began working as a writer and director of plays. He worked as a stage actor, but eventually turned to writing. He had his first engagement in Hollywood in 1932 as one of the many screenwriters on the star-studded episode film If I Had a Million . In the following years he wrote primarily for B films , including several contributions to the Charlie Chan film series. In the 1940s he was responsible for a number of commercially successful A-productions, working in particular for war strips and crime films.

Cole helped found the Screen Writers Guild in 1933 and became involved in the union because he wanted to change the often miserable pay of screenwriters. From 1944 to 1945 he was president of the Screen Writers Guild. The political views of Cole, whose father was a Marxist , have been far left from his youth. The socialist became a member of the Communist Party in 1934 . In 1947, as one of the Hollywood Ten , he declined to reveal his political beliefs to the Committee on Un-American Activities . He was then sentenced for contempt of congress to pay US $ 1,000 and a twelve month prison term, of which he served ten months in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury . Cole was also blacklisted , which ended his previously vibrant Hollywood career abruptly.

After the end of his sentence, he had to make ends meet as a cook and waiter, among other things. In 1961 he moved to London to write plays there, but returned to the USA in the mid-1960s. In the 1960s, Cole again managed to gain a foothold in the film business, always using pseudonyms from friends in the opening credits. He published his screenplay for the successful adventure film Free Born - Queen of the Wild from 1966 under the code name Gerald LC Copley . His last film script was born Frei , after which he taught scriptwriting at the University of Southern California until a year before his death .

Lester Cole died of a heart attack in 1985 at the age of 81. He left a son and two grandchildren.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lester Cole | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved March 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ LESTER COLE DIES: IN 'HOLLYWOOD 10' . ( nytimes.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  3. ^ Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999) - The Hollywood Ten: The Men Who Refused to Name Names . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  4. ↑ LESTER COLE DIES: IN 'HOLLYWOOD 10' . ( nytimes.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  5. ^ Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999) - The Hollywood Ten: The Men Who Refused to Name Names . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  6. ↑ BURT A. FOLKART: Writer Lester Cole this; Blacklisted Guild Founder . In: Los Angeles Times . August 17, 1985, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  7. ↑ LESTER COLE DIES: IN 'HOLLYWOOD 10' . ( nytimes.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  8. ^ Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999) - The Hollywood Ten: The Men Who Refused to Name Names . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
  9. ↑ BURT A. FOLKART: Writer Lester Cole this; Blacklisted Guild Founder . In: Los Angeles Times . August 17, 1985, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed March 14, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Cole, Lester
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , United States
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1985
Place of death San Francisco , California , United States