Edward Dmytryk (1908 - 1999)

Born 4 Sep 1908 in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada

Died 1 Jul 1999 at age 90 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Edward Dmytryk: Motion Picture Director.

Find a Grave: One of the "Hollywood Ten," ten writers, producers and directors who went before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 and refused to answer the question, "Were you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" Born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada, he was the second son of Ukranian immigrants. As a child, his father moved the family from San Francisco and eventually settled in Los Angeles. Edward began selling and delivering newspapers at 6 years old and left home at 14 to become a messenger for Paramount Pictures. By the age of 31, he worked his way up the ladder to become a director. He was a graduate of Hollywood High School and he dropped out of his studies at the California Institute for Technology. He went on to direct such films as "Hitler's Children," "Behind the Rising Sun," "Murder, My Sweet," "Cornered," and "Crossfire," where he was nominated for an Academy Award with Adrian Scott, another member of the Ten. For his refusal to testify at the HUAC hearings in 1947, Dmytryk was found guilty of contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and sentenced to a year in prison. After serving four and a half months at the federal prison camp in Mill Point, West Virginia, Dmytryk found himself on an industry blacklist - unable to work in Hollywood - and, in 1951, recanted his refusal and named names (the only one of the Ten to do so). He wrote his autobiography, "It's a Hell of a Life, but Not a Bad Living," in 1978, where he stated he did not feel guilty about his reversal. But Dmytryk was never forgiven by many in Hollywood. In 1988, Dmytryk commented to the Associated Press, "When I die, I know the obits will first read 'one of Hollywood's Unfriendly 10,' not director of 'The Caine Mutiny,' 'The Young Lions,' 'Raintree Country,' and other films." [1]

IMDb: Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age of 15 and helped him find part-time work as a film studio messenger. Dmytryk was an outstanding student in physics and mathematics and gained a scholarship to the California Institute of Technology. However, he dropped out after one year to return to movies, eventually working his way up from film editor to director. By the late 1940s, he was considered one of Hollywood's rising young directing talents, but his career was interrupted by the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional committee that employed ruthless tactics aimed at rooting out and destroying what it saw as Communist influence in Hollywood. A lifelong political leftist who had been a Communist Party member briefly during World War II, Dmytryk was one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" who refused to cooperate with HUAC and had their careers disrupted or ruined as a result. The committee threw him in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after having spent several months behind bars, Dmytryk decided to cooperate after all, and testified again before the committee, this time giving the names of people he said were Communists. He claimed to believe he had done the right thing, but many in the Hollywood community--even those who came along long after the committee was finally disbanded--never forgave him, and that action overshadowed his career the rest of his life. In the 1970s, as his directing career ground to a halt, Dmytryk recalled some advice once given him by Garson Kanin, and returned to academic life, this time as a teacher. From 1976 to 1981 he was a professor of film theory and production at the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1981, was appointed to a chair in filmmaking at the University of Southern California, a position he held until about two years before his death. During his teaching career, he also authored several books on various aspects of filmmaking, as well as two volumes of memoirs. [2]

Sources

Birth Date: 04 Sep 1908 Edward Dmytryk

Death Date: 01 Jul 1999 [3]