Michael Wilson (writer)

Michael Wilson (July 1, 1914 - April 9, 1978) was an American multiple-Academy Award winning screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism.

Related Topics:
July 1 - 1914 - April 9 - 1978 - American - Academy Award - Screenwriter - Blacklisted - Hollywood - Movie studio - McCarthyism

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Wilson was born in McAlester, Oklahoma. He began his writing career with short stories for magazines then starting in 1941 he wrote or co-wrote twenty-two screenplays, several of which are legendary and considered some of the finest in the history of film.

Related Topics:
McAlester, Oklahoma - Short stories

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His career in Hollywood was interrupted by service with the United States Marine Corps during World war II. In 1952 he was a co-winner of the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for A Place in the Sun. After being blacklisted, he worked on scripts for European film productions plus he wrote or collaborated on scripts for Hollywood films without credit or under a pseudonym.

Related Topics:
United States Marine Corps - World war II - Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - A Place in the Sun - European - Pseudonym

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Michael Wilson was posthumously awarded his second Academy Award in 1984 for The Bridge on the River Kwai. In 1995, Wilson was credited by the Academy Board of Directors with an Academy Award nomination as a co-writer of Lawrence of Arabia and credited as the winner of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best British Dramatic Screenplay.

Related Topics:
Posthumously - The Bridge on the River Kwai - Lawrence of Arabia - Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best British Dramatic Screenplay

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While blacklisted, Wilson also wrote the script for Salt of the Earth, a fictionalized account of a real strike by zinc miners in Grant County, New Mexico. The movie was directed by Herbert Biberman and produced by Paul Jarrico both of whom had also been blacklisted by Hollywood. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film has also been preserved by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Related Topics:
Salt of the Earth - Grant County, New Mexico - Herbert Biberman - Paul Jarrico - Library of Congress - National Film Registry - Museum of Modern Art

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Michael Wilson died of a heart attack in 1978 in Los Angeles County, California.

Related Topics:
Heart attack - Los Angeles County - California

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Filmography:

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• Che! (1969)
• Planet of the Apes (1968)
• The Sandpiper (1965)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (originally uncredited)
• 5 Branded Women (1960) (originally uncredited)
• La Tempesta (1958) (uncredited)
• The Two-Headed Spy (1958) (originally as James O'Donnell)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (originally uncredited)
• Friendly Persuasion (1956) (originally uncredited)
• The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) (uncredited)
• Mannequins für Rio (1954) (uncredited)
• Carnival Story (1954) (uncredited)
• Salt of the Earth (1954)
• 5 Fingers (1952)
• A Place in the Sun (1951)
• It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
• Forty Thieves (1944)
• Bar 20 (1943)
• Colt Comrades (1943)
• Border Patrol (1943)
• The Men in Her Life (1941)
 
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