Walter Bernstein
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)
- 1948: Until the Last Hour (Kiss the Blood Off My Hands) - Director: Norman Foster
- 1959: That Kind of Woman - Directed by Sidney Lumet
- 1959: Hot Limit (The Wonderful Country) - Director: Robert Parrish
- 1960: The Lady and the Killer (Heller in Pink Tights) - Director: George Cukor
- 1960: Princess Olympia (A Breath of Scandal) - Director: Michael Curtiz
- 1960: The Magnificent Seven (The Magnificent Seven) - Director: John Sturges
- 1961: Paris Blues - Director: Martin Ritt
- 1962: Something's Got to Give - Director: George Cukor (unfinished)
- 1964: Target Moscow (Fail-Safe) - Director: Sidney Lumet
- 1964: The train (The Train) - Director: John Frankenheimer
- 1965: Goldfalle (The Money Trap) - Director: Burt Kennedy
- 1970: Cursed to Judgment Day (The Molly Maguires) - Director: Martin Ritt
- 1976: Der Strohmann (The Front) - Director: Martin Ritt
- 1977: Two savvy professionals (Semi-Tough) - Director: Michael Ritchie
- 1978: The Clan (The Betsy) - Director: Daniel Petrie
- 1979: An Almost Perfect Affair - Director: Michael Ritchie
- 1979: Yanks - Yesterday We Were Strangers (Yanks) - Director: John Schlesinger
- 1980: A lovely Fratz (Little Miss Marker) - Director: Walter Bernstein
- 1988: The House on Carroll Street (The House on Carroll Street) - Director: Peter Yates
- 1988: The Couch Trip (The Couch Trip) - Director: Michael Ritchie
- 1997: Miss Evers 'Boys (Miss Evers' Boys) (TV movie) - directed by Joseph Sargent
- 2000: Fail Safe - command Corner (Fail Safe) (TV movie) - Director: Stephen Frears
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
- Walter Bernstein in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Walter Bernstein at AllMovie (English)
- Walter Bernstein on filmreference.com (English)
- Literature by and about Walter Bernstein in the bibliographic database WorldCat
- Former official website ( Memento of June 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- Interview with Walter Bernstein on emmytvlegends.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter Bernstein, Celebrated Screenwriter, Is Dead at 101. In: NYT. Retrieved January 24, 2021 .
- ^ 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 |