Nedrick Young, actor and screenwriter claimed
that he was blacklisted throughout the 1950s and 1960s for refusing to confirm
or deny membership of the Communist Party before the House Committee on
Un-American Activities….well maybe not.
The fact is he was in 10 films before
1950, two of them uncredited. However he was in 15 film from 1950 through 1958,
mostly in small parts. In six of those films, he was uncredited. He sold four screenplays
from 1957 through 1968
His screen play The Defiant Ones received
an Oscar for the "best screenplay written directly for the screen" in
1958.[2] For the same film, Young and co-writer Harold Jacob Smith won
In 1959 he won an Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, from
the Mystery Writers of America. His other screen play Inherit the Wind was also
nominated for, but did not win, an Academy Award in 1960.
In 1960 he brought a lawsuit against the
Motion Picture Association (MPAA) for 13 years of blacklisting. He lost the
suit since he couldn’t prove his case of account for actual damages.