Curiosidades

In 1933 he was one of the founders of the Screen Writers Guild, of which he served as President from 1944-45.

(1944-1945) President of the Screen Writers Guild.

Blacklisted in 1950s, during the McCarthy "Red Scare" era. He was one of the infamous "Hollywood Ten".

Between 1932 and 1947, Cole wrote more than forty screenplays that were made into motion pictures.

After 1947, he had no further film credits under his own name, although he lived another 38 years. (He did apparently get a story credit on an episode of a minor TV series in 1968).

Cole was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors who were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted for their refusal to testify regarding their alleged involvement with the Communist Party.

As a result of his refusal to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Cole was blacklisted by studio executives, after which just three of his screenplays were made into films - submitted under the names Gerald L.C. Copley, Lewis Copley, and J. Redmond Prior.

In 1947, he became one of the Hollywood Ten, who refused to answer questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about their Communist Party membership. Cole was convicted of Contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and sentenced to twelve months' confinement at the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, of which he served ten months.

His best-known screenplay was that for the highly successful Born Free (1966), credited to Gerald L.C. Copley.

Cole was married three times. His first two marriages ended in divorce and he separated from his third wife.

He was the son of Polish immigrants to the United States, his father was a Marxist garment industry union organiser, and Cole was a dedicated socialist from childhood.

In 1933, he joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Writers Guild of America, and in 1934 joined the American Communist Party.

Lester Cole began his career as an actor but soon turned to screenwriting. His first work was "If I Had a Million".

In 1981, Cole published his autobiography, entitled Hollywood Red: The Autobiography of Lester Cole. In it, he recounted a 1978 incident when he called into a radio talk show on which ex-Communist Budd Schulberg was a guest. According to Cole, he berated Schulberg (who had testified before HUAC as a friendly witness) on the air as a "canary" and a "stool pigeon" before he was cut off: Aren't you the canary who sang before the un-American Committee? Aren't you that canary? Or are you another bird, a pigeon - the stool kind.... Just sing, canary, sing, you bastard! About this incident, Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley (Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry) comments, "Whether this actually happened is uncertain, but one can guess.".

Ronald Radosh, Emeritus Professor of History at City University of New York, wrote that Cole "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death.