Ring Lardner, Jr.
Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner Jr. ( born August 19, 1915 in Chicago, Illinois; † 31 October 2000 in New York) was an American screenwriter. He was the son of the writer and sports writer Ring Lardner. His older brother John was also active as an author.
Biography
After Lardner Jr. had broken his studies at Princeton, he became in 1935 a reporter for the New York Daily Mirror. David O. Selznick brought him the end of the year to Hollywood. Lardner worked as a journalist, then as a script consultant for such films as A Star Is Born; thus he got good impressions in the work of a screenwriter. For Selznick, he met his first wife, Silvia Schulman know.
During the Spanish Civil War, Lardner's political views moved into the left spectrum. He became in 1936 a member of the Communist Party USA and organized anti-fascist demonstrations. In the 1930s and 1940s it was no problem for Hollywood studios to employ scriptwriters, the followers were of communism. So Lardner was in 1943 along with Michael Kanin an Academy Award ( Best Original Screenplay ) for Woman of the Year ( The woman of whom we speak ) to accept. 20th Century Fox signed him. Lardner earned $ 2,000 a week and was one of the highest paid writers of his time.
1945, the marriage ended in divorce with Silvia; from it come two children, Peter and Ann. 1946 Lardner married actress Frances Chaney, his brother David 's widow. With her he had one child, James, and two step-children, including the future actress Kate Lardner.
1950 Lardner was condemned as a member of the Hollywood Ten for contempt of Congress to one year in prison. Then he lost his position at 20th Century Fox and was on the black list of Hollywood studios, for example, was on the Dalton Trumbo. Lardner worked without recognition in a few films, including to Virgin Iceland under the pseudonym Philip Rush, and especially on five television series. He published the novel The Ecstasy of Owen Muir (1954). Otto Preminger gave him the early 1960s, his first work under real name, but the projects were not realized. Lardner's name appeared in 1965 in the film credits of the classic Cincinnati Kid. The highlight of his comeback was winning the Oscar in 1971 for M * A * S * H. However, little of Lardner's work flowed into the film.
On 31 October 2000 Lardner died from cancer. He was the last survivor of the ten filmmakers who had refused to cooperate with the Committee for Un-American Activities.