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Ian McLellan Hunter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English screenwriter Ian McLellan Hunter (1915 - 1991) is best known for a film that he did not actually write. In 1953, he agreed to front for the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo for the screenplay he had written for Roman Holiday, a film which Paramount and William Wyler were very keen to make. When it was released to great acclaim and financial success, it was Hunter’s name on the credits and it was he who picked up the Oscar for Best Original Story (the Academy had no idea they were honouring a blacklistee). Hunter had paid Trumbo some of the salary he had earned for his role in the film. Ironically, Hunter himself was blacklisted a couple of years later.
In the 1990s, the Academy sought to rectify some of the mistakes they had made during the Cold War and the Second Red Scare, reinstating Dalton Trumbo being one of them. Trumbo had died in 1976 but his widow was presented with an Oscar in 1993 for Roman Holiday. This was actually the second Oscar made for this category win as Hunter’s son, Tim Hunter, a director in his own right, refused to hand over his father’s Oscar.
Hunter also fronted for Ring Lardner, Jr., collaborating with him under the pseudonym Philip Rush. With Lardner, he co-wrote the book for Bert Lahr's short-lived 1964 Broadway vehicle Foxy.