Howard Koch, outstanding author of radio scripts, plays, and screen-plays, was born in New York City on December 12, 1902. He received his B.A. from St. Stephen's College in 1922 and an LL.B. degree from Columbia Law School in 1925.
Koch's first major production in the entertainment field was the radio script for the famous 1938 Mercury Theater broadcast of the War of the Worlds. He began writing plays shortly thereafter with The Lonely Man, which was followed by Give Us This Day and In Time to Come. In 1940 he launched his career in Hollywood, collaborating on the screenplay for The Sea Hawk (1940). Screenplays written since then include The Letter (1940), Sergeant York (1941), In This Our Life (1941), Casablanca (1942), Mission to Moscow (1942), Rhapsody in Blue (1943), Three Strangers (1944), No Sad Songs for Me (1948), The Greengage Summer, released in America as Loss of Innocence (1961-1962), The War Lover (1962), and The Fox (1967). He won an Academy Award for collaboration on the best screenplay of 1942 for Casablanca.
In October, 1947, Koch was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating Communist infiltration into the Hollywood film industry. The Committee's concern with Koch stemmed primarily from his screenplay, Mission to Moscow, and his participation in activities and organizations such as Hollywood Writers Mobilization; National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions; and the Spanish Refugee Committee. His appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee was cancelled by the Committee but, as a result of the publicity, he was blacklisted by the American motion picture and television industries from 1950 to 1958. Most of this time was spent in Europe where Koch wrote screenplays under a nom de plume.
Howard Koch married Anne Green, also a writer; and had three children, Howard Jr., Karye, and Peter.
