Waldo Pressman Salt
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Waldo Pressman Salt (October 18, 1914 – March 7, 1987) was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Waldo Salt graduated from Stanford University at age eighteen. The first of his nineteen films he wrote or in which he participated in the writing, was released in 1937 with the title "The Bride Wore Red." He joined the American Communist Party in 1938. He was a civilian consultant to the U.S. Office of War Information during World War II.
Salt's career in Hollywood was interrupted when he was blacklisted after refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951. Like many other blacklisted writers, while he was unable to work in Hollywood Salt wrote pseudonymously for the British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood.[1]
After the collapse of the blacklist, Salt won Academy Awards for Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, and a nomination for his work on Serpico.
Waldo Salt died in Los Angeles in 1987. He is the father of actress Jennifer Salt.
[edit] Writing credits
- Coming Home (1978)
- The Day of the Locust (1975)
- Serpico (1973) (screenplay)
- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971)
- Midnight Cowboy (1969)
- Wild and Wonderful (1964)
- Flight from Ashiya (1964)
- Taras Bulba (1962)
- The Nurses (1962) TV Series
- M (1951) (additional dialogue)
- The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
- Rachel and the Stranger (1948) (uncredited)
- Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944)
- Tonight We Raid Calais (1943)
- The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940) (uncredited)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939) (dialogue uncredited)
- The Shopworn Angel (1938)
- The Bride Wore Red (1937) (uncredited)
[edit] References
- ^ Matthews, Tom Dewe. "The outlaws" (free registration required), The Guardian, 2006-10-07. Retrieved on 2006-10-11.
[edit] External links
- Waldo Salt from the American Masters website
- Waldo Salt Papers, an inventory of papers kept in the UCLA Library
- Waldo Salt at the Internet Movie Database
