Silvia Richards

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Silvia Richards was a screenwriter whose most notable films were made during the 1940s and 50's. She wrote screenplays for the German director Fritz Lang, several "film noir" classics, and later she wrote television scripts. Her work was interrupted by the McCarthy Hearings. She was called in as a friendly witness for HUAC (the House on UnAmerican Activities Committee) but claimed that she went along with HUAC because she feared for the well being of her two young sons. Her action helped to cause a divorce from her husband, screenwriter Robert L. Richards, who would not testify for the Committee. Robert Richards was blacklisted and forced to write under various pseudonyms for the remainder of his career. Silvia married screenwriter A. I. (Buzz) Bezzerides and assisted him in developing his writing ideas but stopped writing on her own. Buzz died New Year's Day, 2007 at the age of 98 and Silvia several years before.