Philip Yordan Biography

Fast Facts

• Won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1952 for his work on "Detective Story․"
• Earned a law degree from Kent College of Law in Chicago
• Is the grandfather of production manager Spence McAndrew
• Became interested in writing due to his fascination with detective stories at a young age
• As a teenager, he ran a mail order beauty supply store out of his family's basement
• Was primarily known as a script doctor for his acclaimed rewrites of various screenplays
• Would often write screenplays that included "tough-guy" characters, such as his work on "Dillinger," "Detective Story" and "The Big Combo․"
• During the blacklisting era in Hollywood, he would allow blacklisted writers to use his name in order to produce screenplays