Reginald Rose was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and
televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
writer most widely known for his work in the
early years of television dramaThe Golden Age of Television in the United States began sometime in the late 1940s and extended to the late 1950s or early 1960s.-Evolutions of drama on television:...
. Rose's work is marked by its treatment of controversial social and political issues. His
realisticRealism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
approach helped create the
slice of lifeSlice of life is a phrase describing the use of mundane realism depicting everyday experiences in art and entertainment.-Theater:The theatrical term refers to a naturalistic representation of real life, sometimes used as an adjective, as in "a play with 'slice of life' dialogue." The term...
school of television
dramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, which was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the 1950s.
Born in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Rose attended Townsend High School and briefly attended
City CollegeThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
(now part of the
City University of New YorkThe City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
) before serving in the U.S. Army in 1942-46, where he became a
first lieutenantFirst lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
.
Rose was married twice, to Barbara Langbart in 1943, with whom he had four children, and to Ellen McLaughlin in 1963, with whom he had two children. He died in 2002 from complications of heart failure.
Television
He sold his first teleplay,
Bus to Nowhere, in 1950 to the live CBS dramatic anthology program
Studio One, for which he wrote
Twelve Angry Men four years later. This latter drama, set entirely in a room where a
juryA jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
is deliberating the fate of a teenage boy accused of
murderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, was inspired by Rose's service on just such a trial.The play was later made into a black-and-white movie.
The Internet Movie Database quotes Rose's memories of this experience: "It was such an impressive, solemn setting in a great big wood-paneled courtroom, with a silver-haired judge, it knocked me out. I was overwhelmed. I was on a jury for a manslaughter case, and we got into this terrific, furious, eight-hour argument in the jury room. I was writing one-hour dramas for
Studio One then, and I thought, wow, what a setting for a drama."
Rose received an Emmy for his teleplay and an
OscarAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nomination for its 1957 feature-length film adaptation. Rose wrote for all three of the major broadcast
networkA television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
s of the 1950-80 period. He created and wrote for
The Defenders in 1961, a weekly courtroom drama spun off from one of Rose's episodes of
Studio One;
The Defenders would go on to win two Emmy awards for dramatic writing.
Twilight Zone
His teleplay
The Incredible World of Horace Ford was the basis for
an episode of The Twilight Zone"The Incredible World of Horace Ford" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Horace Ford is a toy designer who keeps remembering his childhood. Every time he remembers back it happens in a repeat...
in 1963 starring
Pat HingleMartin Patterson "Pat" Hingle was an American actor.-Early life:Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Miami, Florida, the son of Marvin Louise , a schoolteacher and musician, and Clarence Martin Hingle, a building contractor. Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of...
,
Nan MartinNan Martin was an American actress who starred in movies and on television.Born in Decatur, Illinois and raised in Santa Monica, California, her first film role was The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit...
, and
Ruth WhiteRuth Patricia White was an American Emmy Award-winning and movie actress.-Early career:A lifelong resident of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, White graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Literature from Rutgers University in 1935. While pursuing her acting career in nearby New York City, she taught acting...
. The episode was broadcast on April 18, 1963, on CBS as Episode 15 of Season Four. The theme was how the past is always glorified due to the repression and self-censorship of the negative aspects. We remember the good while we forget the bad. The teleplay had originally appeared as a
Studio One episode in 1955.
Films
Rose was a screenwriter, beginning with
Crime in the Streets (1956), an adaptation of his 1955 teleplay for
The Elgin Hour. He made four movies with the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
producerA film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Euan LloydEuan Lloyd is a British film producer.He began his career directing short travelogue documentaries, starting with April in Portugal in 1954...
:
The Wild GeeseThe Wild Geese is a British 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger...
,
The Sea WolvesThe Sea Wolves is a 1980 war film starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. The film is based on the book Boarding Party by James Leasor, which itself is based on a real incident which took place in World War II...
,
Who Dares WinsWho Dares Wins is a 1982 British film starring Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Richard Widmark and Edward Woodward, directed by Ian Sharp. The title is the motto of the elite Special Air Service ....
and
Wild Geese IIWild Geese II is a 1985 British action-thriller film, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle by Daniel Carney, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese, which was also adapted from a novel...
.
Plays
- The Porcelain Year (1950)
- Twelve Angry Men (1954)
- Black Monday (1962)
- Dear Friends (1968)
- This Agony, This Triumph (1972)
External links