Screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 19, 1915. Perhaps some of his writing talent was inherited: his father was the famous short story writer and humorist, Ring Lardner. After finishing high school, young Lardner attended Princeton University for two years, then became a reporter for the New York Daily Mirror.
In the mid-thirties Lardner left the east coast for Hollywood; his first job was as a publicity writer for David O. Selznick. He did not get beyond writing scenes for Selznick and so, early in 1938, Lardner went to Warner Brothers. His experience there was no more encouraging, and once again he moved to a different studio.
Early in the 1940s, however, Lardner's career blossomed. Collaborating with Michael Kanin, he wrote Woman of the Year and sent it to Katherine Hepburn. She liked the story and recommended that MGM buy it. The film established Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as a romantic comedy team and it earned Lardner and Kanin an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1942. Woman of the Year was followed by The Cross of Lorraine (1943), Tomorrow, the World (1944), Cloak and Dagger (1946), Forever Amber (1947), and Forbidden Street (1949).
In 1947 Lardner became involved in the infamous affair known as the Hollywood blacklist. Investigating Communist influence in the motion picture industry, the House Un-American Activities Committee summoned men and women to give testimony before it. An “unfriendly witness,” Lardner refused to testify and invoked the Fifth Amendment. He and nine of his colleagues were cited with contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison; the men became known as the Hollywood Ten. Lardner served nine-and-a-half months of that sentence in Danbury, Connecticut in 1950.
Even before he went to prison Lardner found that he was blacklisted; studios would not hire him. When he was released he and his family moved to New York. There he wrote a novel, The Ecstasy of Owen Muir, which was published in England. He also wrote, under pseudonym, for television series filmed in England.
Not until 1965 did Ring Lardner, Jr. again receive screen credit for his own work. In that year he wrote the screenplay for The Cincinnati Kid, and in 1970 he wrote the acclaimed and very successful M*A*S*H, for which he won a second Academy Award.
