Background
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was born on December 5, 1910 in New York City, New York, United States. He was a son of Henry and Rebecca Polonsky.
City College of the City University of New York, New York City, New York, United States
In 1928 Abraham Lincoln Polonsky enrolled to the City College of the City University of New York.
Columbia Law School, New York City, New York, United States
In 1935 Abraham Lincoln Polonsky graduated from Columbia Law School with law degree.
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky
(Political convictions separate Ram from Zenia, his aunt, ...)
Political convictions separate Ram from Zenia, his aunt, when he is still a boy in the Bronx of the 1920s, but the two are reunited fifty-six years later in Jerusalem where they are caught in a terrorist attack.
https://www.amazon.com/Zenias-Way-Novel-Abraham-Polonsky/dp/0690018967/?tag=2022091-20
1980
(Force of Evil... is a classic of the American cinema, a f...)
Force of Evil... is a classic of the American cinema, a film that deserves its proper attention. It's been a major influence on my work, particularly in Mean Streets, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas. I first saw the film when I was thirteen years old, and I was overwhelmed by its writing, its direction, its use of music, and its acting... And over the years I've had the pleasure of introducing the film to Francis Coppola, Robert De Niro, and Michael Powell, among others... Force of Evil was the only film that Polonsky was to direct for 21 years, because he was blacklisted. It's one of the great losses to American films and the world cinema. And I feel it's very fortunate that you are able to see this pristine, fully restored film today, and it should serve as a warning that this film's been saved merely by chance.
https://www.amazon.com/Force-Evil-Critical-Film-Literature/dp/0963582313/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(You Are There, a classic of television's Golden Age, was ...)
You Are There, a classic of television's Golden Age, was produced from 1953 to 1955. Each episode, 'reported' by such journalists as Mike Wallace, Walter Cronkite, and Bill Leonard, investigated a historical event as if it were current breaking news. The series starred such luminaries as James Dean, Paul Newman, Rod Steiger, John Cassevetes, and Lorne Greene. Not able to officially work on the programme, they submitted their scripts through 'fronts'.
https://www.amazon.com/You-There-Teleplays-Film-Literature/dp/0963582321/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda star in this critically a...)
Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda star in this critically acclaimed detective drama that takes a hard-hitting look at the lives and loves of New York City's top cops. Directed in gripping documentary fashion by Don Siegel, Richard Widmark portrays the veteran Big Apple detective who is given only a few hours to track down a vicious killer. Henry Fonda is the humane yet relentlessly foreceful police commissioner who orders Widmark into the streets to solve the case, even though he knows it might be his last assignment.
https://www.amazon.com/Madigan-Richard-Widmark/dp/078323208X/?tag=2022091-20
1968
(Based on a true story: In 1909 California, a young Native...)
Based on a true story: In 1909 California, a young Native American kills his lover's father in self-defense and escapes with his girl, as an admiring sheriff reluctantly gives chase.
https://www.amazon.com/Tell-Them-Willie-Boy-Here/dp/B0778XZL29/?tag=2022091-20
1969
(U.S. undercover agent Harry Wargrave has an assignment: e...)
U.S. undercover agent Harry Wargrave has an assignment: escort a Soviet defector on Europe's Milan-to-Rotterdam train, then cross the Atlantic and deliver his charge to Washington.
https://www.amazon.com/Avalanche-Express-Robert-Shaw/dp/B000PBQLZM/?tag=2022091-20
1979
director lawyer screenwriter author
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was born on December 5, 1910 in New York City, New York, United States. He was a son of Henry and Rebecca Polonsky.
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky attended DeWitt Clinton High School. In 1928 he enrolled to the City College of the City University of New York. In 1935 he graduated from Columbia Law School with law degree.
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was trained as a lawyer and taught English for a time at what became the City College of New York, before turning to writing radio scripts for Orson Welles, among others. In 1940 he published a novel with Mitchell A. Wilson under the joint pseudonym Emmett Hogarth, The Goose Is Cooked. In 1943 the solo effort The Enemy Sea appeared and that same year he joined the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the C.I.A.), where he worked on breaking German codes during World War II.
His movies included ''Force of Evil,'' a 1948 film about racketeering in which he directed the actor John Garfield. Polonsky was blacklisted in 1951, after taking refuge in the Fifth Amendment when subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). For the next two decades he was unable to find work in Hollywood under his own name, and the films he wrote and/or directed after the ban was lifted in the late 1960s are not considered to be of the same caliber of his earlier work. During the ban he wrote scripts for television series such as You Are There and Danger using other writers’ names as a front.
In 1959 he co-wrote the film Odds Against Tomorrow under the pseudonym John O. Killens; in 1996, the Writers’ Guild of America restored Polonsky’s credit for the film. In 1956 Polonsky wrote A Season of Fear, a novel in which a civil engineer is harassed by anti-communist zealots. In 1991, a film based on his script, Guilty by Suspicion, another McCarthy-era expose, was released, though Polonsky asked to have his name removed from the credits because the director changed the protagonist from a communist to a naive liberal. In the months before his death, Polonsky led a protest against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which intended to award Elia Kazan, a notorious informer for HUAC, with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
(Political convictions separate Ram from Zenia, his aunt, ...)
1980(You Are There, a classic of television's Golden Age, was ...)
1997(One of the finest examples of screenwriting at its most p...)
1999(Force of Evil... is a classic of the American cinema, a f...)
1996(Based on a true story: In 1909 California, a young Native...)
1969(Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda star in this critically a...)
1968(U.S. undercover agent Harry Wargrave has an assignment: e...)
1979Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was a member of the Communist Party of the United States. He established and edited a left-wing newspaper, The Home Front. Later, while no longer a member of the Communist Party, he remained committed to Marxist political theory, stating "I thought Marxism offered the best analysis of history, and I still believe that."
In 1937 Abraham Lincoln Polonsky married Sylvia Marrow. In 1993 she died. They had two children: Hank and Susan Epstein.