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Philip Dunne

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Screenwriter

The Resume

    (February 11, 1908-June 2, 1992)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Philip Ives Dunne
    Wrote the screenplays for 'How Green Was My Valley,' 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,' 'The Robe,' 'Forever Amber,' 'The Rains Came,' and 'The Agony and the Ecstasy'
    Co-founder of the Screen Writers Guild; politically active during the Hollywood Blacklist
    Co-founded the Committee for the First Amendment, with John Huston and William Wyler (1947)
    Author of 'Take Two: A Life in Movies and Politics' (1980)
    Later worked as a syndicated columnist/essayist for The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Review, and Time Magazine

Why he might be annoying:

    He looked like Jeff Daniels.
    He tended to write screenplays for Biblical epics which haven't aged well.
    He clashed with fellow members of the Screen Writers Guild whom he felt were 'pro-Stalin' Communists.
    His staunch anti-Communist stance is believed to have been the reason that - though he adamantly spoke out against the Hollywood Blacklist - his employment remained uninterrupted by either a subpoena or 'the blacklist.'
    His fledgling career as a director was disappointing, and would be most notable for featuring an Elvis movie ('Wild in the Country').
    His (failed) attempt to elevate an Elvis flick to 'serious art' weighed in the singer's later decision not to seek challenging acting roles - sticking with the safer 'musical comedy' genre.
    He received sole screenwriting credits for 'The Robe,' when blacklisted Hollywood Ten member Albert Maltz contributed equally.
    He complained that producers had tampered with his 'Last of the Mohicans' script, later saying: 'The film was appalling ... I don't know what writers he had hired, but they had succeeded in turning our authentic eighteenth century period piece into a third-rate Western.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a character witness for Dalton Trumbo at his contempt of Congress trial.
    He also frequently worked with blacklisted filmmakers Ring Lardner, Jr. Clifford Odets, and Marsha Hunt.
    He formed the First Amendment Committee as a means of protesting the procedures of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
    He received screenwriting Oscar nominations for 'How Green Was My Valley' and 'David and Bathsheba' (1941; 1951).
    He received a Golden Globe nomination for his adaptation of Irving Stone's novel 'The Agony and the Ecstasy' (1965).
    He received the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in 1962.
    His Malibu home was a social and political hot spot for Hollywood's liberal-progressive activists for decades.
    His wife later said that he would have been fine sharing writing credits with Maltz (Dunne only discovered later that he would go uncredited).
    His 'Mohicans' script would later be recycled for the Daniel Day-Lewis remake, which was released the same year as his death.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 76.92% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying