The Ecstasy of Owen Muir

<p.> Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner, Jr. was born on August 19, 1915 in Chicago. He was a journalist and screenwriter blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios during the Red Scare of the 1940's and 1950s. After graduating from Princeton University he became a reporter on the New York Daily Mirror. Lardner joined the US Communist Party in 1936. Ring Lardner Jr. moved to Hollywood where he worked as a publicist and "script doctor" before writing his own material. This included Woman of the Year, a film that won him an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 1942. He also worked on the scripts for the films Laura, Brotherhood of Man, Forever Amber, and M*A*S*H. The script for M*A*S*H earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Lardner appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee on October 30, 1947, but like Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz and others he refused to answer any questions. Known as the "Hollywood Ten", they claimed that the First Amendment to the Constitution clearly gave them the right to do this. The HUAC and the courts found them all guilty of contempt of Congress. Lardner was sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined $1000. He was also dismissed by Fox in 1947. Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, Lardner worked for the next couple of years on the novel, The Ecstasy of Owen Muir. He also wrote under several pseudonyms for television series such as The Adventures of Robin Hood. Ring Lardner, Jr., died in Manhattan, New York, in 2000. He was the last surviving member of the Hollywood Ten.

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