Walter Bernstein

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Walter Bernstein (2016)

Walter Bernstein (born August 20, 1919 in Brooklyn , New York City , † January 23, 2021 in Manhattan , New York City) was an American screenwriter .

Life

Walter Bernstein was born in Brooklyn in 1919 to Hannah (née Bistrong) and Louis Bernstein, a teacher . Influenced by his left-wing Jewish family, he joined the Communist Party during his student days at Dartmouth College . After graduating in the late 1930s, Bernstein first worked as a journalist for The New Yorker magazine, for which he wrote his first article at the age of 19. During World War II , he worked as a reporter for the Army magazine Yank . In 1945 he published the book Keep Your Head Down , in which he described his experiences as a war correspondent.

He wrote his first screenplay, which was an adaptation of an English thriller, for the film Until the Last Hour with Joan Fontaine and Burt Lancaster in the lead roles. He then returned to New York to work as a television writer. In the early 1950s his career stalled when the Committee for Un-American Activities blacklisted him for his membership in the Communist Party , which is why he, like Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo , wrote scripts under pseudonyms for several years . It was not until 1959, when the director Sidney Lumet hired him for his film Something from Woman (1959) with Sophia Loren , that Bernstein worked regularly under his real name in the film. He later published a book about this phase in his life called Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist .

Bernstein also worked through his experiences with the McCarthy era in the script of Martin Ritt's comedy The Straw Man (1976), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award . He also appeared as a director for the comedy Ein Reizender Fratz (1980) with Walter Matthau and Julie Andrews . For Peter Yates ' The House on Carroll Street (1988) he again provided a story about the persecution of communists in the United States in the 1950s.

From 1961 to 1984 Bernstein was married to Judith Braun for the third time. From this connection the children Joan, Peter, Nicholas, Andrew and Jacob emerged. Most recently he lived with his wife Gloria Loomis in New York, where he occasionally lectured as an assistant professor for screenwriting at New York University .

Amber died in January 2021 at the age of 101.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

  • 1977: Nomination for an Oscar in the category Best Original Screenplay for Der Strohmann
  • 1977: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for The Straw Man
  • 1978: Nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Two Savvy Professionals
  • 1980: Nomination for the BAFTA Award in the category Best Screenplay (together with Colin Welland ) for Yanks - Yesterday we were still strangers
  • 1996: Gotham Award
  • 1997: Humanitas Prize for Miss Evers' Boys - Justice wins
  • 1997: Nomination for the Emmy in the category Best Screenplay for a miniseries, a television film or a special for Miss Evers' Boys
  • 2001: Tribute at the Nantucket Film Festival

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Bernstein, Celebrated Screenwriter, Is Dead at 101. In: NYT. Retrieved January 24, 2021 .
  2. ^ Judith E. Smith: Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940-1960 . Columbia University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-231-12170-9 , p. 408.
personal data
SURNAME Bernstein, Walter
SHORT DESCRIPTION American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 2021
Place of death Manhattan , New York City