1. Overview
Michael Wilson was an influential American screenwriter known for his significant contributions to Hollywood cinema, despite his career being profoundly impacted by the Hollywood blacklist during the McCarthy era. Born on July 1, 1914, in McAlester, Oklahoma, Wilson's early life saw him develop a strong political consciousness, leading him to join the communist movement while at the University of California, Berkeley. His screenwriting career began in the early 1940s, only to be interrupted by service in World War II.
Upon his return, Wilson quickly gained acclaim for films such as A Place in the Sun (1951), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. However, his refusal to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1951 led to his blacklisting, forcing him into a period of exile in France where he continued to write uncredited or under pseudonyms. During this time, he penned the screenplay for Salt of the Earth (1954), a groundbreaking independent film noted for its pro-labor message and depiction of social inequality. He also made uncredited contributions to major films like The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
After the blacklist began to wane, Wilson returned to Hollywood in 1964 and resumed his credited work, notably on Planet of the Apes (1968), where he infused political satire reflecting his own experiences. He received the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement in 1976, using his acceptance speech to advocate for artistic freedom and the protection of dissenters. Wilson died in 1978, but his legacy continued to grow posthumously, with his screenwriting credits and Academy Awards for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia being officially reinstated, cementing his place as a resilient and critically important voice in film history.
2. Early Life and Career Beginnings
Michael Wilson's journey from a politically aware student to an acclaimed screenwriter was shaped by his education, early professional experiences, and the profound disruption of World War II, setting the stage for his later challenges and triumphs in Hollywood.
2.1. Early Life and Education
Franklin Michael Wilson Jr. was born on July 1, 1914, in McAlester, Oklahoma, into a Roman Catholic family. When he was nine, his family relocated first to a Los Angeles suburb and then to the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1936, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in philosophy and a minor in English. Wilson described himself as a "dilettante" during his undergraduate years, but it was during his first year of graduate school at Berkeley that he became politically active and joined the communist movement. He continued his postgraduate studies for three years, serving one year as a teaching assistant in English, another on a Theban Fellowship in Creative Literature, and a third on a Gayley Fellowship in American History.
With aspirations of becoming a novelist, he initially experimented with proletarian short stories, successfully selling five of them to magazines such as Esquire. While at Berkeley, Wilson met architecture student Zelma Gussin, and they married in 1941. Zelma's older sister, Sylvia, was married to Paul Jarrico, who was then an emerging Hollywood screenwriter and, like Wilson, a leftist. Zelma encouraged Michael to discuss screenwriting with Jarrico. Jarrico later recalled advising Wilson about film's potential as an art form that combines all others and offers significant political influence. He also suggested that if Wilson didn't love screenwriting, he could view it as a lucrative craft to support his literary ambitions. Wilson took Jarrico's advice and moved to Hollywood in 1940.
2.2. Early Screenwriting Career
To immerse himself in the craft of film scripts, Wilson dedicated himself to watching as many movies as possible while continuing to write and publish short stories. One of his stories caught the attention of an agent, which led to Wilson securing his first professional screenwriting job at Columbia Pictures. He was paid 100 USD a week for five weeks of work on a challenging script that had already been through 15 other writers. This movie, The Men in Her Life starring Loretta Young, was released in 1941, and Wilson received a co-credit. Subsequently, he was hired by independent producer Harry Sherman at 200 USD a week to write Hopalong Cassidy westerns featuring actor William Boyd. Wilson's scripts, completed in the first half of 1942, became the films Border Patrol (1943), Colt Comrades (1943), Bar 20 (1943), and Forty Thieves (1944).
Wilson's burgeoning screenwriting career was interrupted by America's entry into World War II. In August 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He underwent training as a radio analyst and attained the rank of first lieutenant before being honorably discharged from the Marines in December 1945.
2.3. Post-War Career Resumption
Upon returning to civilian life after World War II, Michael Wilson became a contract screenwriter with Liberty Films. His initial notable contribution was to It's a Wonderful Life (1946). He was hired as a "polisher" for the script, which was based on Philip Van Doren Stern's fantasy short story "The Greatest Gift". Although an arbitration by the Screen Writers Guild credited the script to Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and director Frank Capra, with "additional scenes" by Jo Swerling, Wilson was acknowledged in the Academy Bulletin as a "contributor to screenplay." His wife, Zelma, recalled that Wilson viewed It's a Wonderful Life as a good but not great film, noting his professional commitment despite his personal disinterest in films featuring angels, given his background as a disenchanted Catholic.
As his next assignment from Capra, Wilson was tasked with adapting Jessamyn West's The Friendly Persuasion, a collection of short stories centered on an Indiana Quaker family whose pacifist convictions are challenged during the American Civil War. While Capra praised Wilson's "swell job" on the adaptation, he ultimately decided against producing the film due to the prevailing Cold War atmosphere in the late 1940s, fearing it might be perceived as anti-war. In his later testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Wilson bitterly accused the committee of "beating the drums of war" and suggested that their actions contributed to The Friendly Persuasion not being produced, given its warm portrayal of peace-loving people.
Following his work on Friendly Persuasion, Wilson wrote a screenplay adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's novel Look Homeward, Angel, though it was never produced. He then began adapting Theodore Dreiser's lengthy novel An American Tragedy, which resulted in the critically acclaimed film A Place in the Sun (1951).
3. Hollywood Blacklist Period
The period of the Hollywood blacklist represented a profound challenge for Michael Wilson, forcing him to navigate a treacherous landscape of political persecution, yet it also spurred some of his most significant and independent artistic achievements.
3.1. HUAC Testimony and Blacklisting
The year 1951 marked both a peak and a turning point in Michael Wilson's career. Two months after A Place in the Sun was nominated for the Grand Prix du Festival at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival in April, Wilson received a subpoena from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as a suspected Communist. Upon receiving the subpoena, he immediately informed his employer, Twentieth Century-Fox, that he would not cooperate with the committee. Consequently, production chief Darryl Zanuck promptly fired him. In early September, Wilson wrote to a friend, expressing his situation: "I have been 'laid off,' which is the studios' temporary euphemism for blacklisting me. There was a time when studios waited until a man was in contempt of Congress before blacklisting him; but today the mere announcement that I have a subpoena and that I oppose this committee's aims costs me my job... freedom of speech is costly these days."
On September 20, 1951, Wilson appeared before the HUAC. He invoked his right under the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer questions regarding his alleged Communist Party membership or to name any colleagues. As a result, he was categorized as an "unfriendly witness." During his questioning by HUAC Chief Counsel Frank Tavenner and Congressman Clyde Doyle, Wilson asserted his belief that the committee was committing "subversion against the Bill of Rights" by invading the rights of American citizens, stating his refusal to link himself with an organization the committee deemed subversive.
Despite being blacklisted in 1951, Wilson was not immediately made persona non grata. In March 1952, he was able to accept, alongside co-writer Harry Brown, the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for A Place in the Sun. He also won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay and received another Academy Award nomination for a script he had written for 5 Fingers (1952). However, soon after these recognitions, he was fully blacklisted for 13 years by the American entertainment industry, severely curtailing his ability to work openly in Hollywood.
3.2. Salt of the Earth and Independent Filmmaking
In 1953, while blacklisted, Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay for Salt of the Earth (1954), a film that became a landmark in independent cinema. The movie was a fictionalized account of a real-life strike by zinc miners in Grant County, New Mexico, and was produced entirely outside the conventional Hollywood studio system by other artists who were also blacklisted, including director Herbert Biberman and producer Paul Jarrico, as well as actor Will Geer.
The creation of the screenplay for Salt of the Earth involved a unique and deeply collaborative process between Wilson and the mining community it depicted. Wilson regularly met with the local miners and their families at public gatherings, sometimes attended by as many as 400 people. He would read his latest draft of the screenplay, solicit feedback, and then incorporate the miners' suggestions, repeating this iterative process until everyone approved the script. For instance, the Mexican-American miners informed Wilson that his initial draft contained "too much Hollywood stuff," and he accepted their criticism, making corrections. They specifically overruled a subplot involving adultery, fearing it would reinforce ethnic prejudices, and Wilson also changed a scene where a character used her dress to wipe up a beer spill, as the miners felt it reinforced negative stereotypes about Chicanos.
Due to its strongly pro-labor narrative and the involvement of blacklisted cast and crew, the film faced severe harassment throughout its production and post-production phases. It was effectively banned from public exhibition in the United States until 1965. Decades later, in 1992, after gaining significant "cult" status through underground screenings, Salt of the Earth was recognized as culturally significant by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In a 1970s interview, Wilson stated that Salt of the Earth gave him the most satisfaction among his screenplays, explaining that he had full control over the script, meaning no one could alter it without his permission, and he was more easily persuaded to make changes when "reason, not power," was applied. This comment reflected his long-standing frustration with the studio system's approach to filmmaking, where screenwriters often lacked control over the integrity of their work. In the same interview, he lamented that "Anyone permitted to tamper with a script will certainly do so, including the gaffer and the producer's wife." Paul Jarrico once remarked that Wilson "would have had a happier life as a novelist," underscoring Wilson's struggles with Hollywood's collaborative yet often restrictive environment.
3.3. Exile and Uncredited Work
Following the completion of Salt of the Earth, Michael Wilson and his family moved to France in an effort to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the blacklist and McCarthyism in the United States. Shortly after their departure, their U.S. passports were revoked by the government, effectively preventing their return to their home country. While living abroad, Wilson continued to work, primarily on scripts for the European film industry. He also wrote or collaborated on numerous American film scripts, often under a pseudonym or without screen credit, and for significantly less money than he had earned before being blacklisted. His wife, Zelma, later recounted how the family had to live "very modestly" during their period of exile.
Among Wilson's notable uncredited works that made it to the screen were Carnival Story (1954), produced by King Brothers Productions (who frequently employed blacklisted writers like Dalton Trumbo); They Were So Young (1954); Otto Preminger's The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955); William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956); The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) for Sam Spiegel and David Lean; The Two-Headed Spy (1958); Dino De Laurentiis's La Tempesta (1958) and Five Branded Women (1960); and again for Spiegel and Lean, Lawrence of Arabia (1962). His significant contributions to Lawrence of Arabia, alongside Robert Bolt, earned him the Best British Dramatic Screenplay award from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, which he belatedly received after the Guild ruled in December 1963 that he was entitled to equal credit with Bolt.
A particular controversy arose with Friendly Persuasion. While the Wilsons were in France, director William Wyler acquired the rights to the film from Paramount. Wyler admired Wilson's original 1947 script but desired some revisions, employing several individuals, including author Jessamyn West, his brother Robert Wyler, and Harry Kleiner, to make changes. Ultimately, the final screenplay remained largely Wilson's work. However, in adherence to blacklist restrictions, Wyler intended to deny Wilson screen credit, assigning it only to West and his brother Robert. Wilson, upon learning this, sought arbitration from the Writers Guild. The arbitration committee indeed awarded Wilson sole credit, but when the film premiered, studio executives exploited a clause in their collective bargaining agreement with the Guild, allowing them to refuse credit to a blacklisted writer. Consequently, the only writing credit displayed on screen read: "From the book by Jessamyn West." Wilson later famously observed that "for the first and perhaps only time a Hollywood picture was released that wasn't written by anyone."
Further obstacles emerged when Friendly Persuasion was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. In anticipation of the nomination, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences adopted a special bylaw specifically barring an award to anyone who had not cleared themselves of charges related to past or present membership in the Communist Party. Although not explicitly naming Wilson, this rule was clearly aimed at him. It was eventually removed two years later. At the 29th Academy Awards in 1957, Wilson's name was absent from the ballot. Instead, Friendly Persuasion was listed with the wording, "Achievement nominated, but writer ineligible for Award under Academy By-Laws." The award that year was ultimately given to Around the World in 80 Days.
Similarly, for The Bridge on the River Kwai, Wilson and Carl Foreman worked independently on adapting Pierre Boulle's 1952 French novel. As both Wilson and Foreman were blacklisted, the screenplay credit for The Bridge on the River Kwai was controversially given to Boulle, despite his own admission that he could neither speak nor write English.
Wilson remained in France with his family until 1964. At that point, their U.S. passports were finally restored, enabling their return to the United States, where they settled in Ojai, California.
4. Return to Hollywood and Later Life
After the end of the blacklist, Michael Wilson returned to the American film industry, contributing to significant projects and ultimately receiving long-overdue recognition for his career achievements.
4.1. Post-Blacklist Career
After the lifting of the blacklist, Michael Wilson resumed his credited screenwriting career in Hollywood. He wrote screenplays for films such as The Sandpiper (1965), Planet of the Apes (1968), and Che! (1969). For Planet of the Apes, which was based on Pierre Boulle's 1963 science fiction novel, Rod Serling had written the initial screenplay adaptation. However, producer Arthur P. Jacobs and director Franklin J. Schaffner were not fully satisfied with Serling's script, believing it needed more political satire. They subsequently hired Wilson, who undertook a complete rewrite of the dialogue and infused the script with his own perspective as a former blacklistee. For example, he transformed a scientific hearing in Serling's draft into a trial about political heresy, where the apes' chief prosecutor dramatically declares, "There is a conspiracy afoot to undermine the very cornerstone of our faith." Serling later acknowledged, "it's really Mike Wilson's screenplay, much more than mine," and Wilson himself stated in a 1972 interview, "[Serling] wrote the first draft screenplay. I wrote the second, third, and final drafts." Wilson did not contest the decision to grant Serling a screenwriting co-credit, largely because the iconic surprise ending from Serling's original script was retained.
In 1970, Wilson suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right hand and arm. Despite this physical challenge, he managed in the following years to complete several more screenplays, though they remained unproduced at the time of his death. These included The Raid On Harper's Ferry, an adaptation of Truman J. Nelson's book The Old Man: John Brown at Harper's Ferry (1973); The Wobblies, which focused on the Industrial Workers of the World; and Outer Darkness, a script exploring CIA infiltration of the Black Liberation Movement.
4.2. Laurel Award and Message to Future Writers
In 1976, upon the recommendation of his friend Dalton Trumbo, another prominent blacklisted screenwriter, Michael Wilson was honored with the Writers Guild of America's prestigious Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement for his lifetime contributions to the craft. In his acceptance speech, Wilson delivered a powerful and prescient message to the audience, particularly addressing the younger writers who had not experienced the Hollywood blacklist firsthand. He urged them to remember and understand that "dark epoch" to avoid repeating it, albeit perhaps with different characters or issues.
Wilson foresaw a potential future crisis where "diversity of opinion will be labeled disloyalty" and immense pressures would be placed on writers in mass media to conform to official policy. He implored the younger generation to "shelter the mavericks and dissenters in your ranks, and protect their right to work." He emphasized that the Guild would need such "rebels" to survive as a union of free writers, and the nation itself would depend on them to remain an open society. His speech served as a profound reminder of the importance of artistic freedom, integrity, and the protection of dissenting voices in the face of political pressure, drawing directly from his own arduous experiences during the blacklist era.
4.3. Death
Michael Wilson died of a heart attack on April 9, 1978, in Los Angeles County, California. He was 63 years old. He was survived by his wife, Zelma Wilson, and their two daughters, Rebecca and Rosanna.
5. Posthumous Recognition and Legacy
Michael Wilson's posthumous recognition significantly reshaped his place in film history, as efforts were made to restore his due credit and honor his work, especially for films where his contributions had been obscured by the blacklist.
5.1. Academy Award and Credit Reinstatement
After Michael Wilson's death, efforts began to formally acknowledge his extensive uncredited work. In December 1984, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unanimously passed a resolution stating that "the names of Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman be added to that of Pierre Boulle on the credit for best screenplay based on material from another medium for the film The Bridge on the River Kwai." In a public ceremony held the following March, Wilson's widow, Zelma Wilson, alongside Carl Foreman's widow, accepted the Academy Awards on behalf of their late husbands, correcting a historical injustice.
Further recognition followed in 1995 when Wilson was officially credited with an Academy Award nomination as co-writer for Lawrence of Arabia. Additionally, in 1996, the Writers Guild of America West formally reinstated his credit for Friendly Persuasion, rectifying a longstanding omission that stemmed directly from the blacklist.
The restoration of Wilson's credit for Lawrence of Arabia faced particular resistance. When a restored version of the film was theatrically released in 1989, Wilson was still denied a screen co-credit due to lingering opposition from director David Lean. It was not until a 1995 decision by the Writers Guild of America that Wilson finally received his rightful acknowledgment. Consequently, in the DVD editions and the 40th-anniversary re-release of Lawrence of Arabia in 2002, the screen credit prominently displayed "Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson," ensuring his legacy as a key contributor to the iconic film.
5.2. Overall Assessment and Influence
Michael Wilson's overall impact on Hollywood cinema and screenwriting is profound, marked by both his exceptional talent and his unwavering resilience in the face of political persecution. His career, spanning decades, showcases a dedication to craftsmanship and a commitment to infusing his work with social and political commentary. His screenplays, whether credited or not, consistently demonstrated a mastery of storytelling and character development, earning him critical acclaim and multiple awards, including two Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The period of the Hollywood blacklist, while severely disrupting his career, also highlighted his integrity and courage. His choice to defy the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and subsequent independent work, particularly on Salt of the Earth, cemented his reputation as an artist who prioritized his principles over professional convenience. This film remains a powerful testament to his collaborative spirit and his commitment to depicting the struggles of working-class people with authenticity and dignity.
In contemporary film history, Wilson is assessed not only for his impressive body of work but also as a symbol of artistic freedom and resistance against McCarthyism. His posthumous recognition, including the reinstatement of his credits and Academy Awards, underscores a broader historical re-evaluation of the blacklist era and its devastating impact on individual careers and American culture. Wilson's legacy continues to influence screenwriters and filmmakers, serving as an inspiration for those who seek to use their art to challenge injustice and champion dissenting voices, as he powerfully urged in his Laurel Award acceptance speech. His contributions, marked by both artistic excellence and moral fortitude, ensure his enduring influence on the landscape of American cinema.
6. Filmography
This is a chronological list of films for which Michael Wilson received screenwriting credit or made significant uncredited contributions.
- The Men in Her Life (1941)
- Border Patrol (1943)
- Colt Comrades (1943)
- Bar 20 (1943)
- Forty Thieves (1944)
- It's a Wonderful Life (1946) (uncredited)
- A Place in the Sun (1951)
- 5 Fingers (1952)
- Salt of the Earth (1954)
- Carnival Story (1954) (uncredited)
- They Were So Young (1954) (uncredited)
- The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) (uncredited)
- Friendly Persuasion (1956) (originally uncredited)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (originally uncredited)
- The Two-Headed Spy (1958) (originally under the pseudonym James O'Donnell)
- La Tempesta (1958) (uncredited)
- Five Branded Women (1960) (originally uncredited)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (originally uncredited)
- The Sandpiper (1965)
- Planet of the Apes (1968)
- Che! (1969)
7. Awards and Nominations
This section presents a comprehensive list of the awards and nominations Michael Wilson received throughout his career, including posthumous recognitions.
Award | Year | Category | Film | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
Academy Award | 1951 | Adapted Screenplay | A Place in the Sun | Won |
1952 | 5 Fingers | Nominated | ||
1956 | Friendly Persuasion | Nominated | ||
1957 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Won | ||
1962 | Lawrence of Arabia | Nominated | ||
Golden Globe Award | 1952 | Best Screenplay | 5 Fingers | Won |
Edgar Allan Poe Award | 1952 | Best Motion Picture Screenplay | 5 Fingers | Won |
Writers' Guild of Great Britain | 1962 | Best British Dramatic Screenplay | Lawrence of Arabia | Won |
Writers Guild of America | 1976 | Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement | (Lifetime Achievement) | Won |