Peter Askin (born 1940) is an actor, director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing the 2007 film Trumbo , a documentary about the Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who was blacklisted for being a member of the Hollywood Ten. [1] For the film, he worked closely with Trumbo's son, Christopher Trumbo. [2]
Born to a Jewish family, [3] Askin is the son of Alma Askin, the daughter of Joseph Durst, [4] the founder of the Durst Organization and member of one of the most prominent real estate families in New York City in the 20th century. [5] He was educated at Middlebury College and Columbia University. [6] He trained under Wynn Handman at The American Place Theatre in New York City. [6] Askin made his debut in 1986 with Down an Alley Filled with Cats. [6] Askin was the screenwriter for such films as Company Man (which he also co-directed) and Smithereens , and he directed and produced the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch . [7] Askin operates the Off-Broadway Westside Theatre. Askin is the Principal Producer of New York-based film and entertainment company Reno Productions. Both fictional movies and documentaries are produced. In 2022 Askin released Salt in My Soul. [8]
James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.
Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the screenplay and costume design also won.
Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Dalton Trumbo, and based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Howard Fast. It is inspired by the life story of Spartacus, the leader of a slave revolt in antiquity, and the events of the Third Servile War. It stars Kirk Douglas in the title role, Laurence Olivier as Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus, Peter Ustinov as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus, John Gavin as Julius Caesar, Jean Simmons as Varinia, Charles Laughton as Sempronius Gracchus, and Tony Curtis as Antoninus.
Herbert J. Biberman was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and directed Salt of the Earth (1954), a film barely released in the United States, about a zinc miners' strike in Grant County, New Mexico. His membership in the Directors Guild of America was posthumously restored in 1997; he had been expelled in 1950.
The Prowler is a 1951 American film noir thriller film directed by Joseph Losey that stars Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes. The film was produced by Sam Spiegel and was written by Dalton Trumbo. Because Trumbo was blacklisted at the time, the screenplay was credited to his friend, screenwriter Hugo Butler, as a front.
The Hollywood Ten is a 1950 American 16mm short documentary film. In the film, each member of the Hollywood Ten made a short speech denouncing McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklisting.
Career is a 1959 American drama film, directed by Joseph Anthony and starring Dean Martin, Tony Franciosa, and Shirley MacLaine.
One of the Hollywood Ten is a 2000 Spanish-British bio-picture. The film was written and directed by Karl Francis.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell. The musical follows Hedwig Robinson, a genderqueer East German singer of a fictional rock and roll band. The story draws on Mitchell's life as the child of a U.S. Army major general who once commanded the U.S. sector of occupied West Berlin. The character of Hedwig was inspired by a German divorced U.S. Army wife who was Mitchell's family babysitter and moonlighted as a prostitute at her trailer park home in Junction City, Kansas. The music is steeped in the androgynous 1970s glam rock style of David Bowie, as well as the work of John Lennon and early punk performers Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.
John Berry was an American film director, who went into exile in France when his career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist.
Hollywood on Trial is a 1976 American documentary film directed by David Helpern.
The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathizers. Actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals were barred from work by the studios.
John Cameron Mitchell is a two-time Tony Award winning American actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer and director. He is best known as the writer, director and star of the 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which is based on the musical of the same name that he wrote the book for. He also portrayed the role of Joe Exotic in the Peacock limited series Joe vs. Carole in 2022.
Theo Stockman is an American actor and singer, known for his roles in Broadway musicals such as Hair, American Idiot, and American Psycho, numerous roles on television including Inside Amy Schumer, High Maintenance, Private Practice, The Following, Shades of Blue, Law & Order: SVU, and for his role in Stephen King's A Good Marriage. He plays Josh on Netflix's Bonding and Jacob on Apple TV's “WeCrashed”.
Christopher Trumbo was an American television writer, screenwriter and playwright. Trumbo was considered an expert on the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist. His father, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, was blacklisted by Hollywood for nearly a decade for refusing to testify to Congress, as one of a group known as The Hollywood Ten.
Trumbo is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Peter Askin, produced by Will Battersby, Tory Tunnell, Alan Klingenstein, and David Viola, executive produced by Jim Kohlberg, and written by Christopher Trumbo. It is based on the letters of Trumbo's father, Dalton Trumbo, an Oscar-winning screenwriter who was imprisoned and blacklisted as a member of the Hollywood Ten, ten screenwriters, directors and producers who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the Hollywood film industry.
Joseph Durst was an American real estate developer, founder of the Durst Organization, and patriarch of the Durst family.
Trumbo is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach and written by John McNamara. The film stars Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas, and David James Elliott as John Wayne. The film follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and is based on the 1977 biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook.
The Cavern is a 1964 Italian-German-American war-drama film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. This was his last film as a director. It was one of a number of war movies John Saxon made outside Hollywood.
Robert Presnell Jr. was an American screenwriter and activist. He became the director of radio shows such as I Love a Mystery and The Orson Welles Show.