Lester Cole 1904-1985

s the son of Polish immigrants, Lester Cole began writing and directing plays at 16 after he dropped out of high school.

   During the 1920s and 30s, Cole worked as an actor before pursuing his screenwriting career.

   While in Hollywood, he became a union activist and co-founded the Screen Writers Guild in 1933.

   He was blacklisted for challenging the committee's right to interrogate him about his political beliefs in 1947 and served 1 year in prison, leaving behind an unfinished script that was completed by John Steinbeck for Kazan's Viva Zapata (1952).

    In 1961, he went to London but returned to the States where he collaborated on screenplays under an assumed name.

   He also taught screenwriting at the University of California, Berkeley.

   Other works include:

• If I Had a Million (1932)

• Walls of Gold (1933)

• Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933)

• Charlie Chan in London (1934) (additional dialogue) (un-credited)

• Pursued (1934)

• Wild Gold (1934)

• Sleepers East (1934)

• Nada más que una mujer (1934) ... aka Nothing More Than a Woman (USA)

• Hitch Hike Lady (1935) (screenplay) ... aka Eventful Journey (UK)

• Too Tough to Kill (1935)

• Under Pressure (1935)

• The President's Mystery (1936) ... aka One for All (UK)

• Follow Your Heart (1936)

• Some Blondes Are Dangerous (1937)

• The Man in Blue (1937) (screenplay)

• The Affairs of Cappy Ricks (1937)

• Secrets of a Nurse (1938)

• Sinners in Paradise (1938) (screenplay)

• The Crime of Dr. Hallet (1938) (screenplay) (story)

• Midnight Intruder (1938)

• The Jury's Secret (1938) (story)

• The Big Guy (1939) ... aka Warden of the Big House (USA: reissue title)

• I Stole a Million (1939) (story)

• Winter Carnival (1939)

• Pirates of the Skies (1939) (story Sky Police)

• The Invisible Man Returns (1940) (screenplay) Video/C 999:1140

• The House of the Seven Gables (1940)

• Pacific Blackout (1941) ... aka Midnight Angel (UK)

• Among the Living (1941) (also story)

• Bad Men of Missouri (1941) (un-credited)

• Footsteps in the Dark (1941) (screenplay)

• Hostages (1943)

• Night Plane from Chungking (1943)

• None Shall Escape (1944)

• Objective, Burma! (1945) ... aka Operation Burma Video/C 999:1363

• Men in Her Diary (1945) (adaptation)

• Blood on the Sun (1945)

• Strange Conquest (1946) (story)

• High Wall (1947)

• The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947)

• Fiesta (1947)

• Chain Lightning (1950) (story These Many Years) (originally as J. Redmond Prior)

• Operation Eichmann (1961) (written by) (originally as Lewis Copley)

• Born Free (1966) (screenplay) (originally as Gerald L.C. Copley)