Hugo Butler

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Hugo Butler (May 4, 1914 – January 7, 1968) was a Canadian born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the movie studio bosses in the 1950s.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, his father had acted and written scripts in silent films. Hugo Butler worked as a journalist and playwright before moving to Hollywood in 1937 where he wrote the first of his thirty-four screenplays. In 1940 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay Edison the Man.

In 1940 he married author, actress and screenwriter Jean Rouverol. Shortly thereafter his career was interrupted when he served in the United States military during World War II.

After being blacklisted, he wrote under various pseudynoms as well as using a fellow member of the Writers' Guild of America as a front to submit screenplays to the movie studios on his behalf. He and his wife went to Mexico where he worked on scripts for directors Luis Buñuel and Carlos Velo. They did not return to the United States on a permanent basis for thirteen years.

Hugo Butler suffered from arteriosclerotic brain disease for several years before passing away from a heart attack in 1968 in Hollywood, California. In 1997, the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America voted to posthumously give him official credit for scripts he had written.