Lester Cole : Biography

Lester Cole was born in New York on 19th June, 1904. The son of Polish immigrants, Cole dropped out of high school in 1920. He wanted to be an actor and appeared in two early Hollywood movies, Painted Faces (1929) and Love at First Sight (1930).

Cole turned to writing and his first screenplay, If I had a Million was filmed in 1932. The following year Cole joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Screen Writers and Authors Guild. Cole held left-wing political views and in 1934 joined the Communist Party.

Other screenplays written by Cole include Pursued (1934), Wild Gold (1934), Too Tough to Kill (1935), Follow Your Heart (1936), Some Blondes are Dangerous (1937), Sinners in Paradise (1938), Invisible Man Returns (1940), Footsteps in the Dark (1941), Hostages (1943), Blood on the Sun (1945), Objective Burma! (1945) and High Wall (1947).

After the Second World War the House of Un-American Activities Committee began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named several people who they accused of holding left-wing views.

Cole appeared before the HUAC on 30th October, 1947, but like, Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., Samuel Ornitz and John Howard Lawson, he refused to answer any questions. Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of Congress and Cole was sentenced to twelve months in Danbury Federal Correctional Institution and fined $1,000.

Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, the script that he was working on at the time, Viva Zapata (1952) was finished by John Steinbeck. Following his release from prison, Cole worked a series of odd jobs before moving to England.

Cole eventually returned to the the United States where he began collaborating on screenplays under an assumed name. This included the highly successful, Born Free (1965). He also wrote his autobiography, Hollywood Red (1981) and reviewed films for People's World.