Marguerite Roberts

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Marguerite Roberts
Born(1905-09-21)September 21, 1905
DiedFebruary 17, 1989(1989-02-17) (aged 83)
OccupationScreenwriter
Years active19331971

Marguerite Roberts (September 21, 1905 – February 17, 1989) was an American screenwriter, one of the highest paid in the 1930s. After she and her husband

blacklisted for nine years and unable to get work in Hollywood. She was hired again in 1962 by Columbia Pictures.[1][2]

Biography

Roberts was born in 1905 in Clarks, Nebraska.[2][3]

In the early 1920s, Roberts and her first husband traveled in the

MGM, which made her one of the best paid screenwriters of Hollywood at $2500 per week. She explained how she preferred to write scenarios for tough men: "I was weaned on stories about gunfighters and their doings, and I know all the lingo too. My grandfather came West as far as Colorado by covered wagon. He was a sheriff in the state's wildest days."[6]

Roberts was working for

Communist Party in 1939, Roberts followed him but left in 1947.[8]
She encouraged him to pursue his independent writing and supported them both by her screenwriting.

Blacklisted in 1951 for refusing to answer the House Un-American Activities Committee,[4] Roberts had to wait nine years before working again in Hollywood. In 1957 she and Sanford moved to Montecito, California.

In 1962, she was hired by Columbia Pictures to work on Diamond Head (1963). She also wrote the screenplay for True Grit (1969), which earned its actor, John Wayne, his only Oscar. She wrote steadily through the next decade and had many of her films produced.[9]

She died on February 17, 1989, at 83 years old from arteriosclerosis.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Baumgold, Julie (November 1, 1996). "The last communist". Esquire. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  2. ^ a b Morgan, Barbara (January 1, 2002). "Roberts, Marguerite (1905–1989)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  3. .
  4. ^ a b "Filmography of Marguerite Roberts".
  5. ^ MSN (ed.). "Marguerite Roberts: Overview". Archived from the original on 2011-02-17. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
  6. ^ a b "Marguerite Roberts". Archived from the original on 2011-10-21.
  7. ^ "John A. Sanford". HarperCollins.
  8. ^ Rutten, Tim (March 8, 2003). "Sanford's originality came through to the end". Los Angeles Times.
  9. ^ "Marguerite Roberts; Writer Blackballed in 1950s Red Hunt". LA Times.

External links