- Jean Rouverol
Infobox Person
image_size = 150px
name = Jean Rouverol
birth_date = birth date and age|1916|7|8
birth_place =St. Louis, Missouri ,USA
death_date =
death_place =
other_names = Jean Rouveral
occupation = Author, actress and screenwriterJean Rouverol (born
July 8 ,1916 , inSt. Louis, Missouri ) is an Americanauthor ,actress andscreenwriter who was blacklisted by theHollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.Biography
Jean Rouverol first acted in a Hollywood
motion picture at the age of seventeen, appearing as the daughter ofW.C. Fields in the 1934 comedy "It's a Gift ". She continued to perform in mainly supporting roles, making another eleven films until 1940 when she married screenwriterHugo Butler . With four children coming in quick order, Rouverol did not return to film acting but throughout the 1940s she performed on radio. While her husband was away in theU.S. military duringWorld War II , Rouverol wrote her firstnovella that she sold toMcCall's magazine in 1945. By 1950 she had her first screenplay made into a film but her career was interrupted as a result of the investigations by theHouse Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) into Communist influence in Hollywood.In 1943 Rouverol and her husband had joined the
American Communist Party . In 1951, when the agents for HUAC attempted to subpoena them, Rouverol, her husband, and their four small children chose self-exile toMexico rather than face possible prison sentences like those imposed a few months earlier on some of their friends who were part of what was dubbed the "Hollywood Ten ." Labeled as subversives and dangerous revolutionaries by the U.S, government, they did not return to the United States on a permanent basis for thirteen years during which time she had two more children.While in exile, Rouverol continued to write screenplays. She also wrote short stories and articles for various American magazines to help earn money. Three screenplays she co-wrote with her husband were accepted for filming by the Hollywood studios because agent
Ingo Preminger (brother of directorOtto Preminger ) arranged for friends from theWriters Guild of America to put their name on the script in place of Rouverol and her husband.In 1960 the family moved to
Italy so she and her husband could work on a film script. After a few years, they returned briefly to Mexico and in 1964 Rouverol and her family came home to the United States for good. Living in California again, she and her husband continued their screenplay collaboration plus she wrote a book onHarriet Beecher Stowe . However, her husband was diagnosed with arteriosclerotic brain disease and died in 1968.In the 1970s, Jean Rouverol returned to writing books and the script for an episode of the
television series , "Little House on the Prairie". After publishing three books in three years, she was hired as co-head writer for theCBS soap opera "Guiding Light ". For this show she received aDaytime Emmy nomination and aWriters Guild of America Award . Rouverol, by then sixty years old, left the show in 1976 and would begin a book about writing for soap operas. She taught writing at theUniversity of Southern California and at UCLA Extension. She also wrote scripts forSearch for Tomorrow andAs the World Turns .Jean Rouverol served four terms on the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America and in 1987 she received the Guild's "
Morgan Cox Award " as a member whose vital ideas, continuing efforts and personal sacrifice best exemplified the ideal of service to the guild.In 2000, the very active eighty-four-year-old Rouverol published "Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years" that told the story of her family's life in exile.
Filmography
*"
Jack Pot " (1940)
*"Western Jamboree " (1938)
*"The Law West of Tombstone " (1938)
*"Annabel Takes a Tour " (1938)
*"Stage Door " (1937)
*"The Road Back" (1937)
*"Fatal Lady " (1936)
*"The Leavenworth Case " (1936)
*"Bar 20 Rides Again " (1935)
*"Mississippi" (1935) (uncredited)
*"Private Worlds "(1935)
*"It's a Gift " (1934)Screenplays:
*"The New Pioneers " (1950) [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Of local origin. |url= |quote= Bernard Vorhaus directed the United Artists release from a screen play he wrote with Hugo Butler and Jean Rouverol. "The New Pioneers," a new film on Israel ... |publisher=New York Times |date=July 10 ,1950 |accessdate=2008-04-18 ]
*"The Legend of Lylah Clare " (1968)
*"Face in the Rain " (1963)
*"The Miracle" (1959) (originally uncredited)
*"Autumn Leaves" (1956) (frontJack Jevne )
*"The First Time " (1952) (uncredited)
*"So Young So Bad " (1950)Books:
*"" (1968)
*"" (1972)
*"Juárez, a son of the people " (1973)
*"Storm Wind Rising " (1974)
*"Writing for the soaps " (1984)
*"" (2000)External links
*imdb name|id= 0746169|name= Jean Rouverol
References
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