Quiz

In 1985, he moved to Ireland. He arrested, tried, convicted, and served two years in a French prison for trying to smuggle guns to Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland for their defense against the IRA. His wife, Eleanor, was also imprisoned but released sooner.

Upon his release in 1987, he and his wife moved to Nicaragua. He shot and killed one of the robbers who broke into his home. He was tied up but got loose. The authorities ruled the shooting as justified.

He was a member of the Communist Party and a civil rights activist as a young man. He was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1958 and moved to Cuba but only a stayed a year. He was disillusioned with socialism from living in Cuba. He moved to Mexico but risked arrest to return to the United States. His first wife, Betty, and daughter Sally smuggled him from Tijuana to Los Angeles. He feared arrest but was no longer wanted by the FBI.

Worked in construction and as a park ranger before becoming a screenwriter.

Father of Bill Norton

Son of parents who lost their ranch in Ogden, Utah during the Great Depression, they migrated to California where his father was a haberdashery salesman.

He enlisted in the United States Army in 1943 and was stationed in France and Germany during World War II.

He is survived by his son, Bill L. Norton of Venice, California; his daughters, Sally Norton and Joan Norton both of Los Angeles, California; adopted daughter, Teresa Norton Wolverson of Boston, Massachusetts; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Los Angeles, California (febbraio 2004)