Michael Wilson (writer)
Michael Wilson was an influential American screenwriter known for his contributions to film during the 1940s through the mid-1960s, despite facing significant challenges including blacklisting. Initially pursuing a career in literature, Wilson moved to Hollywood in 1940, where he began writing screenplays. His first major project was a revision for the film "The Men in Her Life," which marked the start of his Hollywood career. He gained recognition for his work on "A Place in the Sun," which won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Screen Adaptation. However, in 1951, Wilson was blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, leading to a lack of credit for many of his significant works, including "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia." Despite these setbacks, Wilson continued to work with fellow blacklisted artists, notably on "Salt of the Earth," which received acclaim in Europe. With the lifting of the blacklist in the mid-1960s, he finally received recognition for films like "Planet of the Apes" and "The Sandpiper." Wilson's career highlights the complexities and struggles faced by artists during a turbulent period in American history.
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Michael Wilson (writer)
- Born: July 1, 1914
- Birthplace: McAlester, Oklahoma
- Died: April 9, 1978
- Place of death: Beverly Hills, California
Biography
Because of Hollywood’s reliance on step development through several writers and the scourge of blacklisting of the 1950’s, there is no easy way to ascertain all the contributions of Michael Wilson made to films of the 1940’s through the mid-1960’s. His name appears with others in the credits for some films; but it is absent from the list for films he helped write (some of which carry credits for people who had nothing to do with the writing or no credits at all).
Wilson originally thought to launch a career as a scholar of literature and took a year of study in France. In that same time, he wrote and published a number of short stories. On the strength of these stories, he was offered a contract to work as a writer in Hollywood. He arrived there in 1940 hoping to make enough money to leave again and resume writing his own stories. He remained there for the rest of his career.
His first screenplay came about because of the urgent demand of director Gregory Ratoff for a full revision of a script scheduled to go into production within days. Wilson got the job and dashed off a revision in short order. The result was The Men in Her Life, based on Eleanor Smith’s novel Ballerina. In rapid succession, he followed that project with three scripts for Hopalong Cassidy cowboy films. He worked on a number of projects that never came to fruition or for which he received no credit.
Finally, in 1951, Wilson got the chance to work on a film in which he felt a strong commitment: A Place in the Sun, based on Theodore Dreiser’s famous novel, An American Tragedy. He and the director, George Stevens, had disagreements about the film, especially about the ending (with both apparently paying scant attention to how Dreiser had actually ended the novel). Eventually, Harry Brown was brought in to resolve the dispute and to provide a final revision. In the end, the film was nominated for best picture and it won two Academy Awards, one for best directing for Stevens, one for best screen adaptation for Wilson and Brown.
That same year, 1951, Wilson found himself blacklisted for having refused to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. After that, his work was obscured by denying him credit or by forcing him to use a pseudonym. Moreover there were several scripts he was commissioned to write that never saw production. Some of the films for which he received no credit are Five Fingers (1952), Friendly Persuasion (1952), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). In the latter case, he was coauthor with Robert Bolt, but only Bolt received credit. In the case of The Bridge on the River Kwai, he and cowriter Carl Foreman, were awarded posthumous Academy Awards in 1985. Meanwhile Wilson did join with other blacklisted artists to produce Salt of the Earth, based on an actual strike against zinc mine owners in New Mexico. The movie had no distribution in the United States, but it played in Europe to high praise and won an award from the French Académie du Cinéma.
By the mid-1960’s, the blacklist was lifted and he received appropriate credit for The Sandpiper, Planet of the Apes (with Rod Serling), and Che! (based on the life of Che Guevara).