Jean Rouverol (July 8, 1916 – March 24, 2017) was an American author, actress and screenwriter who was

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.

Life and career

Rouverol was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, the daughter of playwright

Aurania Rouverol Aurania Rouverol (''née'' Ellerbeck; August 13, 1886 – June 23, 1955) was an American writer best known for her play ''Skidding'', in which she created Andy Hardy and his family, who were turned into a popular series of sixteen movies from Me ...

, who created

Andy Hardy Andrew "Andy" Hardy is a fictional character best known for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer series of 16 films in which he was played by Mickey Rooney. The films were released from 1937 to 1946, except for a final one made in 1958 in an unsuccessful att ...

and wrote many of the films in the MGM series. Rouverol started acting on the stage. During a break from studying at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

she appeared in

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he i ...

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...

alongside

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

as Puck. She was pulled from the play to appear as

W. C. Fields William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathe ...

' daughter in the comedy ''

It's a Gift ''It's a Gift'' is a 1934 American comedy film starring W.C. Fields. It was Fields's 16th sound film, and his fifth in 1934 alone. It was directed by Norman McLeod, who had directed Fields in his cameo as Humpty Dumpty in ''Alice in Wonderlan ...

'' (1934), her first motion picture credit. She continued to perform mainly in supporting roles, making another eleven films until 1940 when she married screenwriter

Hugo Butler Hugo Dansey Butler (4 May 1914 – 7 January 1968) was a Canadian-born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the film studios in the 1950s. Biography Born on 4 May 1914 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, his father, Frank Russel ...

. With four children coming in quick order, Rouverol did not return to film acting but throughout the 1940s performed on radio, including playing Betty Carter on ''

One Man's Family ''One Man's Family'' is an American radio soap opera, heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted dramatic serial in the history of American radio. Television versions ...

''. While her husband was away serving in the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she wrote her first novella, which she sold to ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-f ...

'' magazine in 1945. By 1950, she had her first screenplay made into a film, but her career was interrupted as a result of the investigations by the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

(HUAC) into Communist influence in Hollywood.

American Communist Party/HUAC

In 1943, Rouverol and her husband had joined the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). In 1951, when agents for HUAC attempted to subpoena them, Rouverol and her husband chose self-exile to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

with their four small children rather than face a possible prison sentence, as endured by some of their friends who were dubbed the

Hollywood Ten The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

. Labeled as subversives and dangerous revolutionaries by the government, they did not return to the United States on a permanent basis for thirteen years, during which time they had two more children. In Mexico, she continued to write screenplays, short stories and articles for various American magazines. Rouverol and Butler wrote three screenplays in Mexico which their agent

Ingo Preminger Ingwald "Ingo" Preminger (25 February 1911 – 7 June 2006) was a film producer. He was also the literary agent for several writers, including Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr., both of whom were blacklisted in the McCarthy era. He was the br ...

successfully sold to Hollywood. Preminger did this by arranging for friends in 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 ...

to put their names on the scripts in place of Rouverol and Butler. In 1960 the family moved to Italy, so Rouverol and her husband could work on a film script. In 1961 the family, with the exception of son Michael and daughter Susan, moved to Rome for two years. After a few years, in 1964 they briefly lived in Mexico again, and then returned to the United States for good. Living in California again, she and her husband continued their screenplay collaboration. She wrote a book on

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the harsh ...

. Her husband died in 1968, shortly before he could rise from the

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying emplo ...

after he and Rouverol co-wrote the film ''

The Legend of Lylah Clare ''The Legend of Lylah Clare'' is a 1968 American drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Robert Aldrich. The film stars Peter Finch, Kim Novak (in multiple roles), Ernest Borgnine, Michael Murphy, and Valentina Cortese. The fi ...

''. In the 1970s, Rouverol returned to writing. She scripted an episode of ''

Little House on the Prairie The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the Midwestern United States, American M ...

'', and after publishing three books in three years, she was hired as co-head writer for the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

soap opera ''

Guiding Light ''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...

''. For this show she received a

Daytime Emmy The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (N ...

nomination and a

Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility Th ...

. Rouverol, by then sixty years old, left the show in 1976. Her book "Writing for the Soaps" was published in 1984. She taught writing at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and at

UCLA Extension UCLA Extension is a public continuing education institution headquartered in Westwood, Los Angeles, on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles. Classes are held at UCLA, in Downtown Los Angeles, and other locations throughout Los ...

. Rouverol wrote scripts for ''

Search for Tomorrow ''Search for Tomorrow'' is an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, 1951, and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, on December 26, 1986. Set in the fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, the show focu ...

'' and ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...

''. She served four terms on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America, and in 1987 she received the Guild's Morgan Cox Award as a member "whose vital ideas, continuing efforts and personal sacrifice" best exemplified the ideal of service to the Guild. In 2000, Rouverol (aged 84) published ''Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years'', which told the story of her family's life in exile.

Death

For many years Rouverol lived with actor

Cliff Carpenter Clifford A. Carpenter (March 2, 1915 – January 9, 2014) was an American actor who appeared in radio, television and films. Career In 1937, Carpenter began his professional career on the radio serial ''Terry and the Pirates''. The show was ada ...

, who was another former blacklisted performer. Carpenter died on January 9, 2014, at the age of 98. Rouverol died on March 24, 2017, at the age of 100.

Filmography

Screenplays

*'' So Young So Bad'' (1950) *'' The New Pioneers'' (1950) *'' The First Time'' (1952; uncredited) *'' Autumn Leaves'' (1956; front

Jack Jevne Jack Jevne (January 25, 1892 – May 25, 1972) was an American screenwriter. He also worked as an actor and served as sergeant first class during World War I. He wrote for 58 films between 1919 and 1956, notably working with Laurel and Hardy ...

) *'' The Miracle'' (1959; originally uncredited) *''

Face in the Rain ''Face in the Rain'' is a 1963 film by Irvin Kershner Irvin Kershner (born Isadore Kershner; April 29, 1923November 27, 2010) was an American film director, actor, and producer of film and television. He gained notice early in his career as ...

'' (1963) *''

'' (1968)

Books

*''Harriet Beecher Stowe: Woman Crusader'' (1968) *''Pancho Villa: a biography'' (1972) *''Juárez, a son of the people'' (1973) *''Storm Wind Rising'' (1974) *''Writing for the soaps'' (1984) *''Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years'' (2000)

References

External links

* *
Jean Rouverol
Aveleyman)
Jean Rouverol oral history interview
by the Writers Guild Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Rouverol, Jean 1916 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from St. Louis American centenarians American film actresses American radio actresses Screenwriters from California American soap opera writers American women screenwriters Hollywood blacklist University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Southern California faculty Women soap opera writers American women television writers Writers Guild of America Award winners Screenwriters from Missouri Women centenarians American women academics 21st-century American women