TRUMBO, DALTON. Writer. American. Born in Montrose, Colorado, 9 December 1905. Career: 1930-34—newspaper reporter; 1934—script reader, Warner Brothers; 1935—first novel published; 1936—first film as writer, Love Begins at Twenty; then writer for Warner Brothers, RKO and MGM; 1945—founder and editor, The Screenwriter; 1947—investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee: cited for contempt of Congress, 1949, and served 10-month prison sentence; blacklisted; then wrote under pseudonyms; 1960—resumed writing under his own name; 1971—directed his own script, Johnny Got His Gun. Recipient: Academy Award for The Brave One, 1956 (awarded in 1975 because of the blacklisting); Writers Guild Laurel Award, 1969. Died 10 September 1976. Notable films, some uncredited, include A Man to Remember (1938), Five Came Back (1939), Curtain Call (1940), Kitty Foyle (1940), The Remarkable Andrew (1942), A Guy Named Joe (1943), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus (1960), Spartacus (1960), The Last Sunset (1961), Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Sandpiper (1965), Hawaii (1966), The Fixer (1968), Johnny Got His Gun (1971), and Papillion (1973).

Dalton Trumbo’s life is perhaps more exciting than any of the films he wrote. He was a successful screenwriter in the 1940’s, one of the highest paid in Hollywood. He has been compared to Wilde and Shaw in his capacity as a witty man of letters. He wrote magnificent letters (collected in Additional Dialogue) as well as one of the most stirring anti-war novels ever written, Johnny Got His Gun, a story written from the point of view of a quadriplegic. Then, as the House Un-American Activities Committee searched for Communists in Hollywood, he joined the ranks of the infamous Hollywood Ten… Trumbo was forced into exile but this did not stop the spunky writer from working under a multitude of pseudonyms. He won Hollywood’s highest honors while using the names of others. Finally, after 13 years in limbo and a change in the climate of the country, Trumbo returned a hero. The world finally acknowledged his previously uncredited pictures and he served as a director for the film version of his controversial masterpiece, Johnny Got His Gun (1971).

Journalist, biographer and filmmaker Peter Hanson is Arts Editor of Metroland, the Capital Region’s leading alternative news weekly. His 2001 biography, Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Rebel, is the first book dedicated to the work of Dalton Trumbo. While working on the book, Hanson received a 1999 research grant from the New York State Archives Partnership Trust. Film magazine Classic Images called the biography "intelligently written . . . useful." Hanson’s next book, The Cinema of Generation X, is due to be published by McFarland & Co. in the fall of 2002.

Hanson is best known locally as the author of articles and reviews. His articles in the Delmar-based Spotlight Newspapers received two awards in the 1998 New York Press Association Better Newspaper Competition, one for coverage of local government, and another for spot news coverage.

Hanson has also worked on a number of independent films, including Deep Six (1999, storyboard artist, publicist), London After Midnight (1999, assistant director), Silent Voice (1996, co-screenwriter, actor), Promises to Keep (1995, producer, writer, director), and Throwing Stones (1991, producer, writer, director).

Peter Hanson is a graduate of the film program at NYU, and the journalism program at the University at Albany.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.