Michael Seymour Blankfort (December 10, 1907 – July 13, 1982) was an American

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, writer of books and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. He served as a front for the

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

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 involv ...

on the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-nominated

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

of '' Broken Arrow (1950)''. He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

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 mo ...

''. 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 (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 th ...

) 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 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

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 1961 ...

. 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 wa ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

and

Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky ( ; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, ; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian Americans, Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the ...

Bibliography

* "Battle hymn; a play in three acts, prologues and an epilogue". (with

Michael Gold Michael Gold (April 12, 1893 – May 14, 1967) was the pen-name of Jewish-American writer Itzhok Isaak Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist, journalist, magazine editor, newspaper columnist, playwright, and literary critic. His semi ...

) 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.

Filmography

As screenwriter: * '' Blind Alley'' (1939) * '' Adam Had Four Sons'' (1941) * ''

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

'' (1941) * '' Flight Lieutenant'' (1942) * ''

An Act of Murder ''An Act of Murder'' is a 1948 American film noir directed by Michael Gordon and starring Fredric March, Edmond O'Brien, Florence Eldridge and Geraldine Brooks. It was based on a novel by the Austrian writer Ernst Lothar. The film was prod ...

'' (1948) * '' The Dark Past'' (1948) * '' Broken Arrow'' (1950) (as front for Albert Maltz) * '' Halls of Montezuma'' (1951) * '' My Six Convicts'' (1952) * ''

Lydia Bailey ''Lydia Bailey'' is a 1952 American historical adventure film directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Dale Robertson, Anne Francis and Charles Korvin. It was made by 20th Century Fox and based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Kenneth R ...

'' (1952) * '' The Juggler'' (1953) * ''

'' (1954) (additional dialogue) * '' Untamed'' (1955) * ''

Tribute to a Bad Man ''Tribute to a Bad Man'' is a 1956 American Western film directed by Robert Wise and starring James Cagney about a rancher whose harsh enforcement of frontier justice alienates the woman he loves. It was based on the short story "Hanging's for ...

'' (1956) * '' The Vintage'' (1957) * '' See How They Run'' (1964) * ''

The Plainsman ''The Plainsman'' is a 1936 American Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The film presents a highly fictionalized account of the adventures and relationships between Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity J ...

'' (1966) * '' A Fire in the Sky'' (1978) As associate producer: * '' The Juggler'' (1953)

Awards

1953:

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

for ''The Juggler''

External links

*
Michael Blankfort papers

Margaret Herrick Library The Margaret Herrick Library 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 of historical materials, including those relating ...

, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blankfort, Michael 1907 births 1982 deaths Jewish American novelists Jewish American screenwriters Screenwriters from New York City 20th-century American Jews