American noted family, writer and reporter. The son of writer Ring Lardner, he was a child prodigy, a journalist, reporter and screenwriter. He won an Oscar as co-author of the film “Woman of the Year,” 1942 and was an organizer of the Screen Writer’s Guild. A student of Marxism, he was a victim of the McCarthy red witch-hunts, testifying and jailed for ten months for contempt of Congress. Blacklisted for 18 years from writing, he started his first novel, writing for the screen and TV while in jail using pseudonyms.
He returned to using his own name with the script of M.A.S.H. in 1970, winning his second Oscar. He later wrote an autobiography, “The Lardners: My Family Remembered” in 1976, with a second novel in 1985. In 1988 Lardner received the Writer’s Guild Laurel Award. He had two marriages, five children and two step-children.
Lardner died of cancer 10/31/2000 at this New York apartment, the last surviving member of the Hollywood Ten, the group of writers, directors and producers who were sent to federal prison in 1950 for terms ranging from five months to a year because they refused to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee if they were or ever had been members of the Communist Party or if they knew of Hollywood colleagues who were.