American novelist, playwright, screenwriter and keen art collector, a former professor at Princeton University. He was a prison psychologist in New Jersey before moving to Hollywood in 1937. In 1950 he fronted for blacklisted writer Albert Maltz on L'amante indiana (1950).
President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw) from 1967-69.
Father: Henry Blankfort; Mother: Hannah Goldstein.