'On the Waterfront' screenwriter dies in NY at 95

AP, Yahoo ^ | 08/05/2009 | HILLEL ITALIE

[iowamark]

NEW YORK – Budd Schulberg, the son of a studio boss who defined the Hollywood hustle with his novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" and later proved himself a player with his Oscar-winning screenplay for "On the Waterfront," died Wednesday at age 95.

His wife, Betsy Schulberg, said he died of natural causes at his home in Westhampton Beach, on Long Island. She said he was taken to a nearby medical center, where doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive him.

"He was very loved and cherished," she said.

"On the Waterfront," directed by Elia Kazan and filmed in Hoboken, N.J., was released in 1954 to great acclaim and won eight Academy Awards. It included one of cinema's most famous lines, uttered by Marlon Brando as the failed boxer Terry Malloy: "I coulda been a contender."

Schulberg never again approached the success of "On the Waterfront," but he continued to write books, teleplays and screenplays — including the Kazan-directed "A Face in the Crowd" — and scores of articles.

[iowamark]

"A Face in the Crowd"

[Reagan Man]

The Harder They Fall

[Signalman]

Schulberg became a commie back during the ‘30s but then realized what a scam it was. He later provided the names of some of the commies who had infested Hollywood, to HUAC.

[iowamark]

A Face in the Crowd trailer:
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?cid=9464

Vitajex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ4nqphP21k&feature=PlayList&p=4760DD5EAEE7B94F&index=25

[iowamark]

Here’s the trailer I was looking for. Andy Griffith’s first film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km7_XGkolRM

[ETL]

>Schulberg became a commie back during the ‘30s
>but then realized what a scam it was.
>He later provided the names of some of the commies
>who had infested Hollywood, to HUAC.

I think you’re confusing him with Kazan...

Elia Kazan: A Moral Hero
By: Robert W. Tracinski
FrontPageMagazine.com,
Tuesday, September 30, 2003

(excerpt)

“Kazan’s own defense of his testimony provides the most revealing analogy. His 1954 film, On the Waterfront, portrays a young hood who becomes disillusioned with the gangsters who control the local longshoreman’s union. The rule on the docks, enforced by terror, is that union members are supposed to be “deaf and dumb” — to pretend they don’t know anything about the gang and refuse to speak to the police. The hero of the film is the one man who has the courage to break this code of silence and testify against the gang. Kazan intended the film as a metaphor for his decision to testify against his former comrades in the Party.”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=16147

[Signalman]

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAschulberg.htm

[ETL]

Thanks. Didn’t know that. Their stories are very similiar.

From your link:

“After giving evidence to the House of Un-American Activities Committee Schulberg was free to return to Hollywood scriptwriting. He worked with Elia Kazan, another former Communist Party member who named names...”

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAschulberg.htm

[Loyal Buckeye]

I always thought that movie was overrated.