Name Sidney Buchman Role Screenwriter | Education Columbia University Ex-spouse Beatrice Buchman | |
Born ca. March 27, 1902 ( 1902-03-27 ) Duluth, Minnesota Occupation Screenwriter and producer Died August 23, 1975, Cannes, France Awards Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Movies Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Cleopatra, Here Comes Mr Jordan, Holiday, The Talk of the Town Similar People Ranald MacDougall, Joseph Walker, Robert Riskin, Donald Ogden Stewart, Alexander Hall | ||
Sidney Buchman - Screenwriter
Sidney Robert Buchman (March 27, 1902 – August 23, 1975) was a screenwriter and producer who worked on 38 films from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He is also sometimes credited as Sydney Buchman.
Contents
Biography
Born to a Jewish family in Duluth, Minnesota, and educated at Columbia University, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society, he served as President of the Screen Writers Guild of America in 1941–1942. Buchman was one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriters of the 1930s and 1940s.
His scripts from this period include The Right to Romance (1933), She Married Her Boss (1935), The King Steps Out (1936), Theodora Goes Wild (1936) and Holiday (1938). He would go on to receive Academy Award nominations for his writing on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Talk of the Town (1942), and Jolson Sings Again (1949), winning an Oscar for Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). He also did uncredited work on various films during this period. He was the 1965 recipient of the Laurel Award of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Buchman's refusal to provide the names of American Communist Party members to the House Un-American Activities Committee led to a charge of contempt of Congress. Buchman was fined, given a year's suspended sentence, and was then blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses.
He would return to screenwriting in the 1960s, working on Cleopatra (1963) and The Group (1966).
He died in Cannes, France.