R.I.P. Richard Collins, blacklisted screenwriter

R.I.P. Richard Collins, blacklisted screenwriter

Screenwriter and producer Richard Collins has died at the age of 98. Collins, who started out working at Columbia Pictures as a script reader, was the last surviving member of the "Hollywood 19," the nickname given to the "unfriendly witnesses" who were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee during its investigation of Communism's infiltration of the movie industry, which ended in 10 of them being sent to prison for refusing to "name names."

Collins had been an active member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, though he later said he became disillusioned with the ideological restrictions it tried to place on writers. One of the projects that brought Collins to the attention of HUAC was Song Of Russia, a 1944 MGM production on which he shared the screenplay credit with another prominent victim of the blacklist, Paul Jarrico. Song Of Russia was a idealistic in its portrayal ...

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