Edward Dmytryk Biography

Fast Facts

• Was nominated for two Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for "The Caine Mutiny" in 1955 and "The Young Lions" in 1959
• Won a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Social Film for "Crossfire" in 1947
• Won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture for "Crossfire" in 1948
• Started out as a messenger for Paramount Pictures at the age of 14, later working his way up to projectionist at 19 and film editor at 21
• Quote: "I had long been convinced that the fight of the Hollywood 10 was political, that the battle for freedom of thought, in which I believed completely, had been twisted into a conspiracy of silence․"
• Best known as the director of the films "Crossfire," "The Caine Mutiny," and "Murder, My Sweet․"
• Later in his career he worked as a teacher of film theory and production at the University of Texas and the University of Southern California
• Was a member of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, although he later did testify in 1951
• Released an autobiography titled "It's a Hell of a Life, but Not a Bad Living" in 1978 and also wrote several books on filmmaking, including "On Screen Directing․"