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Lester Cole is a Actor and Scriptwriter American born on 19 june 1904 at New York City (USA)

Lester Cole

Lester Cole
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Nationality USA
Birth 19 june 1904 at New York City (USA)
Death 15 august 1985 (at 81 years) at San Francisco (USA)

Lester Cole (June 19, 1904 - August 15, 1985) was an American screenwriter.

Born in New York City, Lester Cole began his career as an actor but soon turned to screenwriting. His first work was "If I had a Million." In 1933, he joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Writers Guild of America.

In 1934, Cole joined the American Communist Party. He became one of the Hollywood Ten, who refused to answer questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about their Communist Party membership. Cole was convicted of contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and sentenced to twelve months confinement at the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, of which he served ten months.

As a result of his refusal to testify, Cole was blacklisted. Between 1932 and 1947 Cole wrote more than forty screenplays that were made into motion pictures. After his blacklisting, just three screenplays were made into films, only after friends, and wife Gerald L.C. Copley, Lewis Copley, and J. Redmond Prior, submitted the screenplays under their names.

His best-known screenplay was that for the highly successful 1966 film Born Free (credited to Gerald L.C. Copley).

In 1981, Cole published his autobiography, entitled Hollywood Red: The Autobiography of Lester Cole. In it he recounted a 1978 incident when he called into a radio talk show on which ex-Communist Budd Schulberg was a guest. According to Cole, he berated Schulberg (who had testified before HUAC as a friendly witness) on the air as a "canary" and a "stool pigeon" before he was cut off:






Aren't you the canary who sang before the un-American Committee? Aren't you that canary? Or are you another bird, a pigeon – the stool kind....
Just sing, canary, sing, you bastard!







About this incident, Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley comments, "Whether this actually happened is uncertain, but one can guess."

Lester Cole died of a heart attack in San Francisco, California in 1985. Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at City University of New York, wrote that Cole "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death.

Biography

Dans les années 1950, il fut une des victimes du maccarthysme, inscrit sur la Liste noire de Hollywood. Il fut notamment dénoncé comme communiste par le scénariste Morrie Ryskind .

Best films

Fiesta (1947)
(Scriptwriter)
Blood on the Sun (1945)
(Writer)
Objective, Burma! (1945)
(Scriptwriter)

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Lester Cole (37 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Scriptwriter

Born Free
Born Free (1966)
, 1h35
Directed by Tom McGowan, James Hill (réalisateur britannique)
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure, Historical
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about animals, Films about children, Environmental films, Films about cats, Films about lions, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Geoffrey Keen
Rating71% 3.595453.595453.595453.595453.59545
When George Adamson is forced to kill a lioness out of self-defense, he brings home the 3 orphaned cubs she had been trying to protect. The Adamsons tend to the three orphaned lion cubs to young lionhood, and, when the time comes, the two largest are sent to the Rotterdam Zoo, while Elsa the Lioness (the smallest of the litter) remains with Joy. When Elsa is held responsible for stampeding a herd of elephants through a village, John Kendall, Adamson's boss gives the couple three months to either rehabilitate Elsa to the wild, or send her to a zoo. Joy opposes sending Elsa to a zoo, and spends much time attempting to re-introduce Elsa to the life of a wild lion in a distant reserve. At last, Joy succeeds, and with mixed feelings and a breaking heart, she returns her friend to the wild. The Adamsons then depart for their home in England; a year later, they return to Kenya for a week, hoping to find Elsa. They do, and happily discover she hasn't forgotten them, and is the mother of three cubs.
Chain Lightning, 1h34
Directed by Don Alvarado, Stuart Heisler
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action, Adventure
Themes Transport films, Aviation films, United States Armed Forces in films
Actors Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf, James Brown, James Brown
Roles Story
Rating60% 3.00123.00123.00123.00123.0012
Lt. Colonel Matt Brennan (Humphrey Bogart), discharged from the military, runs a civilian flying school, where he is reunited with an old US Army Air Force buddy, Major Hinkle (James Brown).
Fiesta
Fiesta (1947)
, 1h44
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about animals, Films about music and musicians, Sports films, Bullfighting films, Musical films
Actors Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Mary Astor, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova, Cyd Charisse
Rating59% 2.9508952.9508952.9508952.9508952.950895
Retired matador Antonio Morales is anxious when his wife gives birth, disappointed when the baby turns out to be a girl, then thrilled when a twin brother is born. He names them Mario and Maria.
High Wall
High Wall (1947)
, 1h39
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Noir, Crime
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Herbert Marshall, Dorothy Patrick, H. B. Warner, Warner Anderson
Roles Ecrivain
Rating68% 3.44353.44353.44353.44353.4435
Steven Kenet catches his unfaithful wife in the apartment of Willard I. Whitcombe, her boss, and apparently strangles her. Believing he killed her, he attempts to commit suicide by driving his car into the river, even though they have a 6-year-old son. Kenet survives but is sent to the county psychiatric hospital for evaluation to determine if he is sane enough to be charged with murder. He has no memory of what happened, likely due to a pre-existing brain injury from the war.
The Romance of Rosy Ridge, 1h41
Directed by Roy Rowland
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance, Western
Actors Van Johnson, Thomas Mitchell, Janet Leigh, Marshall Thompson, Selena Royle, Charles Dingle
Roles Ecrivain
Rating69% 3.491193.491193.491193.491193.49119
Henry Carson (Van Johnson), a schoolteacher before the Civil War, shows up in a rural region of the Missouri hills. He spends the night with a family consisting of Gill MacBean (Thomas Mitchell), his wife Sairy (Selena Royle), and two of their children, Lissy Anne (Janet Leigh), and youngster Andrew (Dean Stockwell). Another son, Ben (Marshall Thompson), had run off to fight in the war; the family's hope that he will someday return is gradually waning.
Blood on the Sun, 1h34
Directed by Frank Lloyd
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action
Themes Films about writers, Spy films, Films about journalists, Political films
Actors James Cagney, Sylvia Sidney, Porter Hall, John Emery, Robert Armstrong, Wallace Ford
Roles Writer
Rating59% 2.9991852.9991852.9991852.9991852.999185
Nick Condon (James Cagney) is a journalist for the Tokyo Chronicle. He prints a story disclosing Japan's plan to conquer the world. The newspaper is seized by Japanese officers. Condon gets the Tanaka Plan, a paper in which all the plans are described. The Japanese spies who follow him think that Ollie and Edith Miller (Wallace Ford and Rosemary DeCamp) are the ones who discovered the plan because they suddenly have a lot of money and are coming back to the USA. When Condon goes to the ship to bid them farewell, he finds Edith dead. Hearing someone in the adjoining room, he tries to enter, but the intruder escapes. He has only a glimpse of a woman's hand wearing a ring with a huge ruby. Returning home, he finds Ollie, badly beaten. Ollie gives him the Tanaka plan before dying.
Objective, Burma!, 2h22
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action, Adventure
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Aviation films, Political films
Actors Errol Flynn, James Brown, James Brown, George Tyne, George Tobias, William Prince
Rating72% 3.6448353.6448353.6448353.6448353.644835
A group of United States Army paratroopers led by Captain Nelson (Errol Flynn) are dropped into Burma to locate and destroy a camouflaged Japanese Army radar station that is detecting Allied aircraft flying into China. For their mission, they are assigned Gurkha guides, a Chinese Army Captain and an older war correspondent (Henry Hull) whose character is used to explain various procedures to the audience.
None Shall Escape, 1h25
Directed by André de Toth
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Political films
Actors Marsha Hunt, Alexander Knox, Henry Travers, Felix Basch, Richard Crane, Richard Hale
Roles Writer
Rating69% 3.4853953.4853953.4853953.4853953.485395
The film centres around the trial of Grimm as a war criminal. Each character witness provides a flashback scene to a previous part of Grimm's life.
Night Plane from Chungking, 1h9
Directed by Ralph Murphy
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action, Romance
Themes Transport films, Aviation films, Political films
Actors Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, Otto Kruger, Steven Geray, Victor Sen Yung, Soo Yong
Roles Writer
Rating63% 3.1763153.1763153.1763153.1763153.176315
A truck carrying passengers on a road to India is bombed by the Japanese during their invasion of China, due to the carelessness of one of the passengers, Albert Pasavy.
Hostages
Hostages (1943)

Directed by Frank Tuttle
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Actors Luise Rainer, Arturo de Córdova, William Bendix, Paul Lukas, Katína Paxinoú, Oskar Homolka
Roles Writer
Rating67% 3.360463.360463.360463.360463.36046
A group of twenty-six Czechoslovakian citizens are jailed as hostages by the Gestapo until the supposed killer of a Nazi officer – who actually committed suicide – is turned in. The hostages include the leader of the underground resistance movement (William Bendix), whose cover is that of an apparently ignorant washroom attendant in the nightclub where the victim was last seen alive.
Hostages
Hostages (1943)

Directed by Frank Tuttle
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Actors Luise Rainer, Arturo de Córdova, William Bendix, Paul Lukas, Katína Paxinoú, Oskar Homolka
Roles Writer
Rating67% 3.360463.360463.360463.360463.36046
A group of 26 Czechoslovakian citizens are jailed as hostages by the Gestapo until the supposed killer of a Nazi officer – who actually committed suicide – is turned in. The hostages include the leader of the underground resistance movement (William Bendix), whose cover is that of an apparently ignorant washroom attendant in the nightclub where the victim was last seen alive.
Among the Living, 1h7
Directed by Stuart Heisler
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Horror, Noir, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about psychiatry
Actors Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward, Harry Carey, Frances Farmer, Gordon Jones, Rod Cameron
Roles Story
Rating63% 3.193553.193553.193553.193553.19355
Albert Dekker plays twins, John and Paul. Paul was supposed to have died when he was 10 years old, but actually went insane and was shut up in a secret room in his parents' mansion.
Footsteps in the Dark, 1h36
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale, Lucile Watson, Turhan Bey
Rating66% 3.347163.347163.347163.347163.34716
Francis Warren (Errol Flynn) appears to have a normal life handling investments, but secretly he writes lurid detective novels under the pseudonym F.X. Pettijohn. His other career is unknown to wife Rita (Brenda Marshall) or to anyone but Inspector Mason (Alan Hale), who mocks the books, insisting that true crime is much more difficult to solve. A man named Leopold Fissue (Noel Madison) turns up, wanting Francis to help him turn uncut diamonds into cash. Fissue's body is then found murdered on a yacht. The trail leads Francis to burlesque dancer Blondie White (Lee Patrick), who becomes his prime suspect. But her dentist, Dr. Davis (Ralph Bellamy), gives her a solid alibi. Rita becomes sure that Francis is having an affair. Blondie turns up dead, though, after asking Francis to retrieve a satchel from a locker. Rita thinks Francis must have killed Blondie, while her husband believes just the opposite to be true. The diamonds are in the suitcase. Francis concludes that only one man could be behind all this—Davis, the dentist, who promptly tries to kill Francis before the police can figure things out.