Background

Robert Rosen was born on March 16, 1908, and raised on the Lower East Side of New York City. His father was a rabbi.

Education

Robert attended New York University.

Career

Robert Rossen began his career in the theater. In New York City, where he grew up, he landed some of his earliest jobs as a director, playwright, and stage manager for various theater groups. One of the dramas he wrote, The Body Beautiful, was performed a few times on Broadway in 1935 and caught the attention of the executives at Warner Brothers, who offered Rossen a job. In 1936, after living in New York all his life, Rossen relocated to Hollywood. His first screenplay was They Won’t Forget, a collaboration with Aben Kandel produced in 1937. Rossen was proud of this first work which met with critical acclaim and was followed soon after by Marked Woman (1937). Under contract with Warner Brothers, Rossen also wrote Racket Busters (1938) and Dust Be My Destiny (1939). The first is a gangster movie similar to Marked Woman, also starring Humphrey Bogart, but this time as a criminal. John Garfield starred in the latter picture playing a young man who desperately wants to escape the slums in which he lives.

Rossen’s most important film from this early period of work for Warner Brothers was The Roaring Twenties produced in 1939. Set after World War I when the Great Depression was just beginning, the film studies two rival mobsters played by Bogart and James Cagney who battle for power and money. The film was a popular success. Rossen finished out his contract with Warner Brothers writing five more screenplays, including A Child Is Bom (1939), Blues in the Night (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), and Out of the Fog (1941). His last work for the studio was Edge of Darkness, released in 1942, about the Nazi occupation of Norway. Soon after this film, Rossen moved to New York with his family.

Rossen’s next film was not produced until after World War II ended. His first postwar work was A Walk in the Sun (1946). It was followed by The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), which was a character study of a wealthy young woman played by Barbara Stanwyck. Both films were directed by Lewis Milestone. Rossen directed his first film in 1947. Johnny O'Clock, which he also wrote, focuses on one of the Rossen’s favorite character types, the gambler, this one played by Dick Powell. Next Rossen directed the boxing film Body and Soul (1947). The screenplay was written by Abraham Polonsky, under Rossen’s guidance.

Looking to escape from Hollywood, he went to Venice to write and direct the romantic film Mambo (1955) staring Shelley Winters, Vittorio Gassman, and Silvana Mangano. It was an unsuccessful work and Rossen immediately began production on a film that was close to his heart, Alexander the Great, released in 1956. Richard Burton played the legendary Greek who is consumed with his conquest for power. Rossen’s first epic film, it met with a negative reception. Neither Island of the Sun (1957) nor They Came to Cordura (1959) was successful. But in 1961, it appeared that Rossen would revive his career with The Hustler. His next film, Lilith (1964), would be his last. This controversial film featured Warren Beatty as a war veteran who, while working in a mental hospital, falls in love with a patient played by Jean Seberg.

Rossen was working on a Fdm titled Cocoa Beach about people living near Cape Canaveral when his illness became too severe to continue. Undergoing surgery in 1965, he died early the following year of complications from that operation.

Achievements

• Rossen is known as a screenwriter and film director. He received his first Academy Award nomination for All the King’s Men (1949). As writer, producer, and director of this project, the Academy nominated both his screenplay and direction. Based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren, the movie won the award for best picture. His another work The Hustler garnered him an Academy Award nomination for best direction, and he won the director’s award from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Cool World

    (A comic strip vamp seeks to seduce her cartoonist creator...)

    1960
  • Lilith

    (Warren Beatty stars as a Korean war veteran who returns h...)

    1964
  • The Roaring Twenties

    (Three world war i buddies clash in a vicious bootlegging ...)

    1939
  • Strange Love Of Martha Ivers

    (Three youths - Martha, Walter and Sam - are forever bound...)

    1946
  • They Won't Forget 1937
  • Marked Woman 1937
  • Dust Be My Destiny 1939
  • Blues in the Night 1941
  • The Sea Wolf 1941
  • Out Of The Fog 1942
  • Johnny O'Clock 1947
  • Desert Fury 1947
  • All The King's Men 1949
  • Alexander the Great 1956
  • They Came To Cordura 1959
  • The Hustler 1961

Politics

The theme of power’s affect on the psychology of men is one that recurred throughout Rossen’s career. It was at this time that Rossen’s political ideology affected his career for many years to come. Like other contemporaries, Rossen joined the Communist Party in Hollywood during the early years of his career. Although he had been very active with the party during the 1930s, by 1945 Rossen had broken all ties with the Communist Party. The association nonetheless came to haunt him when in 1947, during the McCarthy era, Rossen was named as a member of party. Under this shadow Columbia canceled his contract in 1951, and he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (UAAC). His initial response to plead the Fifth Amendment led him to be promptly blacklisted. Unable to work for the next two years, Rossen agreed to talk in 1953. In a closed hearing he confirmed his own past affiliation and named others he knew to have been members of the party.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• “As a screenwriter and later a producer and director, Rossen preferred to work with contemporary American stories and themes, but his range extended to historical epics and dramas with foreign locales. Although the quality of his work varies, it displays a remarkable continuity in theme, often focusing on the effects of power and ambition on the individual.” - Tom Wiener

Connections

In 1954, Rossen married Sue Siegal. They had three children.

Spouse:

Susan Siegal

colleague:

Aben Kandel

15 August 1897 – 28 January 1993

Aben Kandel was an American screenwriter, novelist, and boxer.

References

• The Illustrated Who's Who of Hollywood Directors: The Sound Era Offers brief profiles of American directors and lists their major films.
  1995
• DLB 26: American Screenwriters, First Series (Dictionary of Literary Biography) Screenwriters, once only needed to provide continuity and dialogue in the form of title cards for silent movies, achieved true prominence with the advent of sound in 1927.
  1984
• The films of Robert Rossen
  1969
• Gangster Films: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to People, Films and Terms Films, actors, directors, producers, cinematographers, plot devices, themes and more are included in this encyclopedic reference to gangster films. The film entries include year of release, distributor, cast and production credits, and a brief synopsis. Terms are placed in context of the genre, with relevant examples given.
  1996
• International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Directors
  1991