Robert Rossen Biography

Fast Facts

• His Star was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for his contributions to Motion Pictures
• After refusing to testify for some time and being put on Hollywood's unofficial blacklist, in May, 1953, and gave the names of 57 members of the Communist Party at the HUAC hearings
• Started as a director and socialist playwright for plays for the Washington Square Players and the Maverick Woodstock Players
• Tried his hand at several prizefights as a young man
• While filming "All the King's Men," he shot on location no matter what weather and lighting conditions were like and caught people on film who were not professional actors, which is comparable to the style of Italian post-war neo-realists
• Was able to use his real life experience as a pool hustler for his film "The Hustler․"
• Was one of the first directors to develop film gris, which explored the conditions of working people and offered social criticism about capitalistic society