Herbert Biberman

Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 – June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and directed ''Salt of the Earth'' (1954), a film barely released in the United States, about a zinc miners' strike in Grant County, New Mexico. His membership in the Directors Guild of America was posthumously restored in 1997; he had been expelled in 1950.

Biberman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Joseph and Eva Biberman and was the brother of American artist, Edward Biberman.

He attended Central High School in Philadelphia, and then went on to the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Penn in 1921, being chosen to deliver the "Ivy Oration" at the Commencement ceremony. From 1924 to 1926 he attended the Yale School of Drama, being a member of the first acting classes to study with George Pierce Baker. In the late 1920s he began performing in plays by The Theatre Guild, and joined Cheryl Crawford and Harold Clurman in founding its "Studio Theatre" for experimental productions - which included and translation of "Red Rust," a Russian play about an abusive Communist leader. By 1930 he began his career as a Broadway director with the American premiere production of Sergei Tretyakov's ''Roar, China!'' and the world premiere production of ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' by Lynn Riggs, which was the basis for the later musical ''Oklahoma!''.

Moving to Hollywood, Biberman's career included writing such films as ''King of Chinatown'' (1939), ''When Tomorrow Comes'' (1939), ''Action in Arabia'' (1944), ''The Master Race'' (1944), which he also directed, and ''New Orleans'' (1947), as well as directing such films as ''One Way Ticket'' (1935) and ''Meet Nero Wolfe'' (1936). He married actress Gale Sondergaard in 1930; the marriage lasted for the rest of Biberman's life. Biberman died from bone cancer in 1971 in New York City. Provided by Wikipedia