Robert Rossen

Robert Rossen (born Robert Rosen on March 16 1908 in New York City) was an American screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned over three decades, from the early 1930s to the early 1960s. Raised on the Lower East Side by Russian‑Jewish immigrant parents, he attended New York University, worked odd jobs as a pool hustler and prize‑fighter, and began directing socially conscious plays in New York’s radical theatre scene. In 1931 he legally changed his surname to Rossen and entered Hollywood in 1937, signing a personal contract with Warner Bros. He quickly proved his talent with scripts such as Marked Woman (1937) and They Won’t Forget (1937), before directing his first feature, Johnny O’Clock (1947). Rossen’s most celebrated works include All the King’s Men (1949), which earned Best Picture and Best Actor Oscars and brought him a Best Director nomination, and The Hustler (1961), a gritty, black‑and‑white study of ambition that garnered nine Academy Award nominations and two wins. Throughout his career Rossen was deeply involved in left‑wing politics, joining the American Communist Party in 1937 and serving as chairman of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization during World War II. After renouncing the Party in 1949 he was called before the House Un‑American Activities Committee twice; he invoked the Fifth Amendment in 1951 and, under pressure, named 57 alleged communists in 1953, which ended his blacklisting. Health problems, including diabetes, plagued his later years, and after a troubled production of Lilith (1964) he withdrew from filmmaking. Rossen died in New York City on February 18 1966 at age 57. His legacy endures through a body of socially conscious films that helped define the “film gris” style and influenced generations of American directors.