Doubtfully blacklisted: Victor Kilian.


  


Victor Kilian, actor.  Kilian’s case very much fits into the bigger picture of Hollywood in the 1950s. The studios offered up bit players to HUAC, like Kilian, and protected their big-name stars who produced money for them, like Gene Kelly.   Kilian appeared as an extra in 103 films from 1929 through 1949. Six of those were shorts. Of the remaining 97 films, he was unaccredited in 35 of them. From 1950 through 1959 he was in three television programs and 13 films of which he was unaccredited in 7 of them. He appeared in three Broadway productions from 1957 through late 1959. Kilian was 61 years old in 1952 when he was supposedly banned from continuing his career as a film extra, so the question is how many parts were open to him at that point?


Just because someone’s name appeared in Red Channels, that doesn’t mean they were blacklisted. It just means there name appeared in Red Channels.
Just because a person said they were blacklisted doesn’t mean they were. Many people in Hollywood have lied about being blacklisted over the years.
If a person was actually blacklisted…and not many were actually blacklisted….it was the studios and TV sponsors who blacklisted them. Not the United States federal government.
If a person claims the blacklist ruined their career, they should be able to prove they had a career before the blacklist.