Lester Cole

Lester Cole was one of the "Hollywood Ten" and one of the founders of the Screenwriters' Guild (now the Writers Guild of America). Yet his legacy and presence are still quite real both in Hollywood and in Europe where he is remembered as a "screenwriter's screenwriter" and an irrepressible activist. A successful New York playwright, he was contracted to Hollywood in the early 1930's and wrote over 40 films during the heyday of the Dream Factories.

As one of the founders of the Screenwriters Guild (WGA) and a thorn in the side of the movie-moguls, especially MGM's Irving Thalberg, he fought throughout his life for the rights of writers to control their work.

The scourge of the blacklist that began in 1947 ended his studio career, but he continued to work under "front" names and continued the fight as an activist and gadfly. His last important film was Born Free, written under the euphemistic penname of "Gerald L.C. Copley". He was a film critic in his later years and a revered teacher of screenwriting at UC Berkeley. Among the many facets of his legacy are plays and screenplays yet to be produced, and an unpublished novel.

His autobiography, Hollywood Red, is available from AviarPress.

SCREENPLAYS - FILMS

The Affairs of Cappy Ricks (Republic)
Among the Living (Paramount)
The Big Guy (Universal)
Blood on the Sun (Cagney-United Artists)
Born Free (Columbia)
Chain Lightning (Warner Bros)
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (Fox) 
The Crime of Dr. Hallet (Universal)
Fiesta (MGM)
Follow Your Heart (Republic) 
Footsteps in the Dark (Warner Bros)
High Wall (MGM)
Hitch Hike Lady (Republic)
Hostages (Paramount)
The House of the Seven Gables (Universal)
If I Had a Million (Paramount) 
The Invisible Man Returns (Universal)
I Stole A Million (Universal)
The Jury's Secret (Universal)
The Man in Blue (Universal) 
Men in Her Diary (Universal)
Midnight Intruder (Universal)
Night Plane from Chungking (Paramount)
None Shall Escape (Columbia)
Objective, Burma! (Warner Bros)
Operation Eichmann (Bischoff-Diamond)
Pacific Blackout (Paramount)
The President's Mystery (Republic)
Pursued (Fox)
The Romance of Rosy Ridge (MGM)
Secrets of a Nurse (Universal)
Sinners in Paradise (Universal)
Sleepers East (Fox)
Some Blondes Are Dangerous (Universal)
Strange Conquest (Universal)
Too Tough to Kill (Columbia)
Under Pressure (Fox)
Wild Gold (Fox)
Winter Carnival (Wanger-United Artists)

DRAMA

The Athenian Connection
(modern adaptation of Aristophanes "Lysistrata")

Say Uncle!

The Blossom and the Root

The Mistress of Mordasov

In An Obscene Temple

FICTION

Stop Thief!

NON-FICTION

Hollywood Red: The Autobiography of Lester Cole
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