Blacklisted writer subsequently nominated for an Oscar for ‘The Front’ – Deadline

Walter Bernstein, who was blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s, but returned to writing in many films, including the Oscar-nominated script for Forward, died at 101.

Bernstein died on Friday night, according to former WGA president West Howard Rodman, who reported on twitter.

Bernstein’s credits included the films Fail-safe (1964), Semi-resistant (1977), Yankees (1979) and The Front, (1976), the latter starring Woody Allen as Howard Prince, who was hired by three blacklisted TV writers to become the face of his work. It was a stratagem that Bernstein knew well, having used the tactic himself when he entered the black list.

Bernstein, born in Brooklyn, New York, joined the Communist Party while studying at Dartmouth College, and served in the United States Army during World War II.

After his dismissal, he became a television writer, but was blacklisted in 1950. He was not credited with any work until 1958, but used pseudonyms and hired fronts that passed the job as his own to help Bernstein.

Bernstein finally restored his real identity to Sophia Loren’s 1959 film That kind of woman, directed by Sidney Lumet, who testified his integrity to film producer Carlo Ponto, Loren’s husband. Bernstein ended up writing three films for Loren. including Michael Curtiz A breath of scandal and George Cukor Heller in pink pants, both launched in 1960.

In his later career, Bernstein taught scriptwriting at Columbia University, NYU and City College, and received an Emmy nomination for writing the 1997 HBO telefilm. Miss. Evers.

Bernstein posted From the inside out: a blacklist memoryin 1996.

Bernstein was a longtime member of the WGA East’s Council and received the Ian McLellan Hunter Memorial award for his set of writing achievements in 1994, and the Evelyn F. Burkey award in 2008. Named after him, the Walter Bernstein guild award honors writers “who demonstrated with creativity, grace and bravery the willingness to face social injustice in the face of adversity”.

He leaves his son, Andrew Bernstein, and his widow, literary agent Gloria Loomis.

No information about a memorial was available immediately.