Sidney Buchman
| Sidney Buchman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
ca. March 27, 1902 Duluth, Minnesota |
| Died |
August 23, 1975 (aged 73) Cannes, France |
| Occupation | Screenwriter and producer |
Sidney Robert Buchman (March 27, 1902 – August 23, 1975) was a screenwriter and producer who worked on 38 films from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He is also sometimes credited as Sydney Buchman.
Career
Born to a Jewish family[1] in Duluth, Minnesota and educated at Columbia University, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society, he served as President of the Screen Writers Guild of America in 1941–1942. Buchman was one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriters of the 1930s and 1940s.
His scripts from this period include The Right to Romance (1933), She Married Her Boss (1935), Theodora Goes Wild (1936) and Holiday (1938). He would go on to receive Academy Award nominations for his writing on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Talk of the Town (1942), and Jolson Sings Again (1949), winning an Oscar for Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). He also did uncredited work on various films during this period. He was the 1965 recipient of the Laurel Award of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Hollywood blacklist, and return
Buchman's refusal to provide the names of American Communist Party members to the House Un-American Activities Committee led to a charge of contempt of Congress. Buchman was fined, given a year's suspended sentence, and was then blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses.
Buchman would return to screenwriting in the 1960s, working on Cleopatra (1963) and The Group (1966).
Death
He died in Cannes, France.
Selected filmography
- The Music Goes 'Round (1936)
References
- ↑ We Are What We Hide, New Yorker. Posted by Lee Siegel, in November 15, 2013.