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Dalton Trumbo with Wife Cleo. Photo by Unknown author.

Top 10 interesting facts about Dalton Trumbo

James Dalton Trumbo was born on the 9th of December 9, 1905. He was an American screenwriter who worked clandestinely on major films, writing under pseudonyms or other authors’ names.

He is of Swiss ancestry and took care of his family for nine years after his father’s untimely demise.

He was a member of the Hollywood Ten who were blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

This was during the HUAC’s committee investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.

Trumbo was later removed from the blacklist after his work was greatly praised. He was married to Cleo Fincher and had three children. Here are 10 interesting facts about Dalton Trumbo:

1. Dalton is an American Screenwriter

A screenplay writer or screenwriter is a writer who practices the craft of writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs, and video games, are based.

It is based on good storytelling and imagination. His professional writing career began in the early 1930s.

Over the next ten years, he became one of Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriters earning as much as $80,000 in one year.

Trumbo scripted many award-winning films like Spartacus, Roman Holiday, Exodus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

2. He was a member of the Hollywood blacklist

A mug shot of Dalton Trumbo. Photo by Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist that denied employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathizers.

It was put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War.

On the 25th of November 1947, the first systematic Hollywood blacklist was instituted on.

This was after ten writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The personalities involved were effectively ostracized from the industry and producers involved instituted compulsory oaths of loyalty from their employees with the threat of a blacklist.

Dalton was a member of the Hollywood ten that were blacklisted

3. Trumbo refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee

The House Committee on Un-American Activities was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives.

It was created to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities of any personality suspected of having either fascist or communist ties in 1938.

Any contempt in the investigation included a criminal charge, which led to a highly publicized trial and an eventual conviction with a maximum of one year in jail in addition to a $1,000 fine.

As a member of the Hollywood, ten Dalton refused to testify. His employment was obscured until Trumbo was credited as the screenwriter of the film Exodus and publicly acknowledged by actor Kirk Douglas for writing the screenplay for Spartacus.

4. He served as a reporter in his early years

News Reporter. Photo by Alexander Andrews.

Dalton was born in Montrose, Colorado, and studied at Grand Junction High School. He started nurturing his skill writing and worked for Walter Walker.

He was a cub reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, covering courts, the high school, the mortuary, and civic organizations.

He then attended the University of Colorado at Boulder after graduating and continued to work as a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera and contributing to the campus humor magazine, the yearbook, and the campus newspaper.

5. Dalton has Swiss ancestry

Trumbo was the son of Orus Bonham Trumbo and Maud Trumbo. His paternal immigration ancestor Jacob Trumbo was of Swiss descent.

Jacob was a Protestant Swiss who settled in the colony of Virginia in 1736. Dalton and his family moved to Grand Junction in 1908.

Dalton’s father then worked as a shoe clerk and collection agent. He never earned enough to keep the family far from poverty

6. Trumbo was posthumously awarded the Academy Award

After his death, Trumbo was awarded the Academy Award.

His screenplay Roman Holiday’s screen credit won the award that was previously given to Ian McLellan Hunter, who had been a front for Trumbo.

A new statue was made for this award because Hunter’s son refused to hand over the one his father had received.

7. He supported his mother and siblings after his father’s death

Tombstone. Photo by WikimediaImages.

Trumbo’s father moved the family to California in 1924. Soon after Orus fell ill and died leaving Dalton to protect, care and support his mother and siblings.

Dalton then worked at a bakery in Los Angeles wrapping bread during the night shift.

He worked here for nine years fending for his family while still attending the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California.

He managed to write movie reviews, 88 short stories, and six novels sadly all of which were rejected for publication.

8. The moving image collection of Trumbo is held at the Academy Film Archive

Collection of films. Photo by dansamu.

Dalton Trumbo’s work has been famous through the years and to honor him the moving image collection of Trumbo is held at the Academy Film Archive.

The collection depicts his work and consists primarily of extensive 35 mm production materials relating to the anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun of 1971.

A couple of years later a statue was installed of him in front of the Avalon Theater on Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado. It depicts writing him writing his screenplay in a bathtub.

9. He died due to a heart attack

Myocardial infarction popularly known as a heart attack occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle.

It mainly occurs in the center or left side of the chest lasting for more than a few minutes.

The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck or jaw.

Dalton suffered a heart attack at the age of 70 on the 10th of September 1976. By his wish, his body was donated for scientific research.

10. A film was created to depict his life and works

The film Trumbo was released in November 2015 and follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and is based on the 1977 biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook.

The film was directed by Jay Roach and actor Bryan Cranston starred in the title role which nominated him for Best Actor at the 88th Academy Awards.