A former writer for The New Yorker who wrote many distinguished scripts for live TV in the late 1940s, Bernstein earned one feature credit, for "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands" (1948), before being blacklisted in 1950. He returned to film work nine years later, scripting such fine films as Sidney Lumet's "Fail Safe" and John Frankenheimer's "The Train" (both 1964) with Franklin Coen and Frank Davis, and Martin Ritt's "The Molly Maguires" (1970), which he co-produced. His screenplay for "The Front" (1976) was a poignant, embittered portrait of the travails of a circle of screenwriters during the blacklist. Bernstein made his directing debut in 1980 with a rather bland remake of "Little Miss Marker". In the 1990s, he wrote a handful of teleplays, most notably the HBO drama "Miss Evers' Boys" (1997) and adapted his own screenplay of "Fail Safe" for a live CBS broadcast in 2000.
- Born:
August 20, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York
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Job Titles:
Screenwriter, Director, Producer, Journalist
Family
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Daughter: Joan Bernstein.
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Mother: Hannah Bernstein.
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Son: Andrew Bernstein.
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Son: Nicholas Bernstein.
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Son: Peter Bernstein.
Education
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Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, BA, 1940
Milestones
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1948 First film credit (as co-adaptor), "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands"
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1959 First screenwriting credit after blacklisting, "That Kind of Woman", directed by Sidney Lumet
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1960 Did uncredited screenwriting on "The Magnificent Seven"
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1964 Penned the screenplay for "Fail Safe", directed by Lumet
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1970 First film as co-producer (with director Martin Ritt), "The Molly Maguires"; also wrote screenplay
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1976 Appeared in feature-length documentary "Hollywood on Trial"
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1976 Scripted the blacklist-themed drama "The Front", starring Woody Allen
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1977 Had bit part as Annie's date outside movie theater in "Annie Hall"
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1977 Penned the screenplay adaptation of "Semi-Tough"
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1978 Produced and wrote two pilots for a proposed series about a detective named "Sparrow"; neither sold
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1979 Contributed to the script of "Yanks"
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1980 Film directing debut (also writer), "Little Miss Marker"
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1988 Scripted "The House on Carroll Street"
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1991 Directed and wrote the "Return to Kansas City" segment of the HBO anthology "Women & Men II"
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1995 Provided the story for the WWII-era drama about interracial love, "The Affair"
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1997 Adapted David Feldshuh's award-winning play "Miss Evers' Boys" into an acclaimed HBO movie
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1999 Penned the teleplay for the CBS movie "Durango"
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2000 Adapted 1964 screenplay of "Fail Safe" for a live broadcast starring George Clooney
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Blacklisted during the 1950s
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While staff sergeant in the Army during WWII wrote "Reporter-at-Large" column for The New Yorker and was roving correspondent for Yank magazine; became staff writer for The New Yorker after war