Born March 23, 1914 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nedrick Young was an Oscar winning writer and actor who began his acting career in film and on the New York stage in 1942. He served overseas with the U.S. Army during World War II.
Young made his film debut in 1942’s Bombs Over Burma. Other pre-1949 films included Dead Men Walk, Ladies’ Day, Gay Blades, The Devil’s Playground, Unexpected Guest, The Swordsman, and The Gallant Blade. His writing credits began with 1946’s Decoy and continued with 1947’s Joe Palooka in the Knockout and 1948’s Rusty Leads the Way.
Under contract to Warner Bros. in 1949 and 1950, he married actress Frances Sage (1915-1963) after her 1949 divorce from Oscar winning writer Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca).
In 1949, he had roles in Border Incident and Gun Crazy. He appeared in 14 films including Retreat Hell!, House of Wax, So This Is Love, and The Eddie Cantor Story as well as two TV episodes through 1953 when his career was halted by his refusal to name names to the House Committee on Un-American Activities resulting in his blacklisting. He had been among scores of artists, writers, and others in the film industry who because of alleged Communist sympathies or associations, were the targets of a nonemployment agreement by the major Hollywood studios.
For four years, Young’s only employment was as a bartender. In 1957, he wrote the story for Jailhouse Rock as Ned Young, and in 1958 he wrote The Defiant Ones under another pseudonym, Nathan E. Douglas. He also had a small role as a prison guard in the film and then appeared in the same year’s Terror in a Texas Town.
Young’s pseudonymous authorship of The Defiant Ones came to light after he won the New York Film Critics Award for his work. His identity having been disclosed before the 1958 Oscar nominations occasioned the organization’s repeal of its ban against honoring blacklisted artists. However, the Oscar which he won for the film was presented under his pseudonym. It was not corrected until 1993.
Young received a second Oscar nomination for his screenplay for 1960’s Inherit the Wind under his own name. That same year he and eleven other blacklisted artists filed a $7.5 million suit against the major studio safter rebuffs in the courts, including a refusal by the Supreme Court to consent to a hearing charging violation of the federal anti-trust laws. The writers eventually won an out of court settlement for $80,000 in 1965.
Frances Sage died in 1963. He married actress Elizabeth Mac Rae (1936-present) in 1965.
The last theatrical film Young worked on was 1964’s The Train for which he did not receive credit. He later wrote the screenplay for the 1968 TV movie, Shadow on the Land. His last acting assignment was in 1966’s Seconds.
Nedrick Young died September 16, 1968 at 54. He had been working on a screenplay for Ed McBain’s The Sentries at the time of his death.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
BORDER INCIDENT (1949), directed by Anthony Mann
Filmed in Mexicali, Mexico and Calexico and el Centro, California, this acclaimed low budget film directed by Mann and shot by John Alton who had been the cinematographer on Mann’s films noir, this film portrays U.S.-Mexico border issues that sadly remain. It starred George Murphy in a rare change from his light leading man roles as the U.S. agent working with undercover Mexican agent Ricardo Montalban in an even more impressive departure from his Latin lover roles opposite the likes of Esther Williams and Jane Powell. Dancer turned actor James Mitchell is equally impressive as Montalban’s Mexican friend. Young has a minor role.
GUN CRAZY (1950), directed by Joseph H. Lewis
John Dall and Peggy Cummins starred in this acclaimed film about young bank robbers loosely based on the lives of Bonnie and Clyde. Dall’s character grew up loving guns and Cummins grew up loving guns and money, making them the perfect couple for portraying the film’s trigger-happy duo. Russ Tamblyn plays Dall’s character as a young teenager. Young has a more substantial role than usual as the grown-up version of one of Dall’s childhood friends who is deputized and aids in the hunt to capture the duo. The film, long considered to be the best of director Lewis’ career, is similar to Nicholas Ray’s 1949 film, They Live by Night.
THE DEFIANT ONES (1958), directed by Stanely Kramer
Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (both Tony curtis and Sidney Poitier), Supporting Actor (Theodore Bikel), Supporting Actress (Cara Williams) and Director, it won 2 for Young’s screenplay(under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas) and Sam Leavitt’s cinematography. The groundbreaking film about a chained together pair of escaped prisoners, one Black and one white, also featured Charles McGraw, Lon Chaney Jr. and Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer in key supporting roles. The film was also New York Film Critics Award winner for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay, the latter drawing attention to Young’s pseudonym.
INHERIT THE WIND (1960), directed by Stanley Kramer
Nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Actor (Spencer Tracy), Film Editing, Cinematography, and Adapted Screenplay, Young was given screen credit under his real name for the first time since being blacklisted. This classic, loosely based on the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1920s, provided strong late career roles for two-time Oscar winners Tracy and Fredric March with March receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his performance while soon to be Oscar nominated Tracy did not. Remade for TV in 1999 with the same screenplay, Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott had the leads with Beau Bridges in the role originally played by Gene Kelly.
SECONDS (1966), directed by John Frankenheimer
Nominated for an Oscar for James Wong Howe’s stunning black-and-wife cinematography, this outstanding sci-fi thriller is about a middle-aged man played by John Randolph, who is “re-born” as the younger Rock Hudson in one of his best performances. Salome Jens, Frances Reid, Murray Hamilton, Jeff Corey, Will Geer, and Richard Anderson co-starred. Young had a minor role in what would turn out to be his last acting assignment. Like Young, Randolph and Corey were also blacklisted actors. This was Randolph’s first film since 1951’s Fourteen Hours. He would appear in many more including Prizzi’s Honor up to his death in 2004.
NEDRICK YOUNG AND OSCAR
The Defiant Ones (1958) – Oscar – Best Original Screenplay
Inherit the Wind (1960) – nominated – Best Adapted Screenplay
