Brother Budd Schulberg Enters Chapter Eternal
August 6, 2009
Big Pi Recipient Budd Schulberg, NH Pi ’36 entered Pi Lambda Phi’s Chapter Eternal on Wednesday, August 5, 2009. He was 95. Schulberg was best known for his award-winning screenplay “On the Waterfront.” Brother Schulberg was awarded Pi Lambda Phi’s Big Pi award in 1950.
Brother Schulberg never stopped working. He wrote journalism, short stories, novels, biographies, screenplays, and became the first boxing editor at Sports Illustrated. He collaborated with F. Scott Fitzgerald. When the collaboration failed due to Fitzgerald’s escalating battle with alcohol, Brother Schulberg turned that into the novel, “The Disenchanted.”
A controversial figure, Schulberg was twice nearly professionally ruined. The first was in 1934 when he visited the Soviet Union and joined the Communist Party of the United States. He rejected the party 6 years later under protest to skew his writing to fit Communist Doctrines. The second also involved communism. When Brother Schulberg was called to testify during the House un-American hearings, he named at least eight other Hollywood figures who had been members of the Communist Party. His testimony was seen by some as a betrayal, by others as an act of principle.
Schulberg was despised by some for his left-wing politics and his negative portrayal of Hollywood. The most notable incident was the legendary John Wayne ran into Schulberg and his wife at midnight in Puerto Vallharta, Mexico. Wayne challenged Schulberg to a fight, and the taller Wayne managed to get a solid headlock before Schulberg’s then wife broke it up.
Schulberg is survived by a daughter, Victoria Kingland, from his first marriage; a son, Stephen, from his second marriage; a son and daughter, Benjamin and Jessica, from his fourth marriage; and two grandchildren. Another son from his second marriage, David, died in 2005.
Links
New York Times Obituary http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/movies/06schulberg.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=obituaries
LA Time Obituary http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-budd-schulberg6-2009aug06,0,4184115.story
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