Michael Seymour Blankfort (December 10, 1907 – July 13, 1982) was an American screenwriter, writer of books and playwright. He served as a front for the blacklisted
Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz (; October 28, 1908 – April 26, 1985) was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their invo ...
on the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and died in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
Film career
The Writers Guild of America, West, in its 1991 restoration of credit for the ''Broken Arrow'' screenplay to Maltz, expressed "a strong statement of appreciation for the courage of screenwriter Michael Blankfort" for his action in fronting for Maltz, in which Blankfort "risked being blacklisted himself to help his friend". Among his own screenplays were '' The Juggler (1953)'' and ''
The Caine Mutiny
''The Caine Mutiny'' is a 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral ...
''. He was president of the
Writers Guild of America, West
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 m ...
from 1967 to 1969 and won the Guild's
Valentine Davies Award
The Valentine Davies Award, named after Valentine Davies, is a special award given to a member of the Writers Guild of America, West
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media ...
(along with
Norman Corwin
Norman Lewis Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the ...
) in 1972. He also served on the Board of Governors of
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
from 1969 to 1971.
Art collection
Michael Blankfort and his wife Dorothy Stiles Blankfort were among the founding members of the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Council, a group of prominent local art collectors connected to the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum).
LACMA was founded in 19 ...
. The Blankforts donated over 400 pieces of art to the museum, including works by
Yves Klein
Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...
,
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...
and
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky (; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, hy, Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of hi ...
.
Bibliography
* "Battle hymn; a play in three acts, prologues and an epilogue". (with Michael Gold) New York, Los Angeles, London: S. French, 1936.
* "The crime". New York: New York Theatre League, 1936.
* "The brave and the blind : a one-act drama". New York: S. French, 1937.
* "A Time to Live". New York: Harcourt Brace, 1943.
* "The Big Yankee: The Life of Carlson of the Raiders". Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1947.
* "Monique: A Drama in Two Acts". (with wife Dorothy Stiles Blankfort) New York: S. French, 1957.
* "An Exceptional Man – A Novel of Incest". New York: Antheneum, 1980.
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
An Act of Murder
''An Act of Murder'' (also known as ''Live Today for Tomorrow'' and ''I Stand Accused'') is a 1948 American film noir directed by Michael Gordon and starring Fredric March, Edmond O'Brien, Florence Eldridge, and Geraldine Brooks. It was ent ...
'' (1948)
* ''
The Dark Past
''The Dark Past'' is a 1948 American film noir psychological thriller film starring William Holden, Nina Foch, and Lee J. Cobb. Directed by Rudolph Maté, the Columbia Pictures release is a remake of '' Blind Alley'' (1939), also released by Co ...
Lydia Bailey
''Lydia Bailey'' is a 1952 American historical film directed by Jean Negulesco, based on the novel of the same name by Kenneth Roberts. It stars Dale Robertson and Anne Francis.
Plot
In 1802, lawyer Albion Hamlin travels from Baltimore to Cap ...
The Caine Mutiny
''The Caine Mutiny'' is a 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral ...
Margaret Herrick Library
The Margaret Herrick Library, located in Beverly Hills, California, is the main repository of print, graphic and research materials of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The library contains a digital repository and has hi ...