J. Edward Bromberg
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Joseph Edward Bromberg (born December 25, 1903; died December 6, 1951) was an American actor who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during McCarthyism.
Born Josef Bromberger in Temeschburg, Austria-Hungary (now Timişoara, Romania), he was five years old when his family emigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School he went to work to help pay the costs to study acting with the Russian coach, Leo Bulgakov. By virtue of his physique, the short, somewhat rotund actor was destined to play secondary roles.
He made his stage debut at the Greenwich Village Playhouse and in 1926 made his first appearance in a Broadway play. The following year, Bromberg married Goldie Doberman with whom he had three children. Bromberg made his debut in a Hollywood film in 1936. Sometimes credited as Joseph Bromberg, the rotund character actor went on to perform in secondary roles in another thirty-four Broadway productions and fifty-three motion pictures until 1951. For two decades, J. Edward Bromberg was highly regarded in the theater world and became a founding member of the Civic Repertory Theatre (1928-1930) and of Lee Strasberg's New York Group Theatre. In Hollywood he helped found the Actors' Laboratory Theatre.
In September of 1950, the anti-communist magazine Red Channels accused Bromberg of being a member of the American Communist Party. Subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in June of 1951, Bromberg refused to answer any questions in accordance with his Fifth Amendment rights. As a result, he was blacklisted from Hollywood. Under enormous stress from the ordeal, friends noted that he aged considerably in a very short time. In 1951 Bromberg sought work in England but died there several months later of a heart attack while working in the London play, The Biggest Thief In Town. He was just a few weeks short of his forty-eighth birthday.
