Allen Rivkin (1903–1990) was an American screenwriter. Rivkin was a advertising copy writer, who went to Hollywood and joined the

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

publicity department. He formed a film writing team with P. J. Wolfson, who got a writer’s contract on the strength of "Bodies Are Dust". They started at

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

the same day. Through a luncheon conversation that day decided to collaborate on a story. In less than two years the pair wrote ten screen plays. They later wrote for the

B. P. Schulberg B. P. Schulberg (born Percival Schulberg, January 19, 1892 – February 25, 1957) was an American pioneer film producer and film studio executive. Biography Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from the ...

company at

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. He was one of the co-founders of the Screenwriters Guild, later the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Guil ...

."Allen Rivkin, 86, Dies; Writer of Screenplays", ''NY Times'' February 20, 1990
accessed 8 June 2014 He wrote several of his scripts with his wife, Laura Kerr.

Select credits

*''

Picture Snatcher ''Picture Snatcher'' is a 1933 American pre-code drama film starring James Cagney as a gangster who decides to quit to pursue his dream. Plot After getting out of prison, Danny Kean (James Cagney) shocks the gang he leads by quitting. He wants ...

'' (1933) *''

Headline Shooter ''Headline Shooter'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama about the life of a newsreel photographer. Director Otto Brower intertwined the screenplay written by Agnes Christine Johnston, Allen Rivkin, and Arthur Kober, with actual newsreel footage ...

'' (1933) *''

Dancing Lady ''Dancing Lady'' is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, and featuring Franchot Tone, Fred Astaire, Robert Benchley, and Ted Healy and His Stooges (who later became The Three Stooges with Curly, Moe a ...

'' (1933) * ''

Highway West ''Highway West'' is a 1941 American crime film directed by William C. McGann and starring Brenda Marshall, Arthur Kennedy and William Lundigan. It is a remake of the 1934 film ''Heat Lightning''.Goble p.1 The film's sets were designed by the art ...

'' (1941) *''

Joe Smith, American ''Joe Smith, American'' is a 1942 American spy film directed by Richard Thorpe and stars Robert Young and Marsha Hunt.Nixon, Rob"Articles: 'Joe Smith American'."''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: September 21, 2016. The film, loosely based o ...

'' (1942) *''

Kid Glove Killer ''Kid Glove Killer'' is a 1942 American crime film, starring Van Heflin as a forensic scientist investigating the murder of a mayor. The B film, the feature-length directorial debut of Fred Zinnemann, was an expanded version of the 1938 '' Crime ...

'' (1942) *'' Till the End of Time'' (1946) *'' The Farmer's Daughter'' (1947) *''

Tension Tension may refer to: Science * Psychological stress * Tension (physics), a force related to the stretching of an object (the opposite of compression) * Tension (geology), a stress which stretches rocks in two opposite directions * Voltage or el ...

'' (1950) *''

Prisoner of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

'' (1954)

References

External links

* American male screenwriters 1903 births 1990 deaths Place of birth missing Place of death missing 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-screen-writer-stub