American screenwriter, novelist and photography critic, educated at Columbia University. After graduating, he worked for three years as an orderly and technician at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and for another three years as an investigator for the New York City Bureau of Welfare. During World War II, he worked as a scenarist for the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Force. In feature films, he is best remembered for his collaboration with John Huston on the script of
The Asphalt Jungle (1950).
