Awards & Winners

Michael Wilson

Date of Birth 01-July-1914
Place of Birth McAlester
(Pittsburg County, Oklahoma)
Nationality United States of America
Also know as James O'Donnell, James O'Donnell, James O'Donnell
Profession Screenwriter
Michael Wilson was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios during the era of McCarthyism for being a communist. Wilson was born and raised Roman Catholic in McAlester, Oklahoma. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1936. He taught English and began his writing career with short stories for magazines. Then, starting in 1941, he wrote or co-wrote twenty-two screenplays, several of which are legendary and considered some of the finest in the history of film.

Awards by Michael Wilson

Check all the awards nominated and won by Michael Wilson.

1962


Nominations 1962 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Lawrence of Arabia
The Board of Governors voted on September 26, 1995 to grant then-blacklisted writer Michael Wilson an Academy Award nomination, along with Robert Bolt, for Lawrence of Arabia. This was the result of a Writers Guild of America finding that Wilson and Bolt share the credit for the screenplay.

1957


Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay
Honored for : The Bridge on the River Kwai
(Though Pierre Boulle received official screen credit, it was commonly known that blacklisted writers, Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, wrote the screenplay based on Mr. Boulle's novel (translated from the French). The Board of Governors, on December 11, 1984, voted posthumous Oscars to Wilson and Foreman and Academy records have been updated.)
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama
Honored for : Friendly Persuasion

Nominations 1957 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama Friendly Persuasion
Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay The Bridge on the River Kwai
Though Pierre Boulle received official screen credit, it was commonly known that blacklisted writers, Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, wrote the screenplay based on Mr. Boulle's novel (translated from the French). The Board of Governors, on December 11, 1984, voted posthumous Oscars to Wilson and Foreman and Academy records have been updated.

1956


Nominations 1956 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Friendly Persuasion
Early in 1956, the name of blacklisted screenwriter Michael Wilson had been deleted from the screen credits of Friendly Persuasion by Allied Artists, the film's distributor, based on a 1952 agreement between the Screen Writers Guild and various production companies. That agreement gave studios the right to omit from the screen the name of any individual who had failed to clear himself before a duly constituted legislative committee of Congress if accused of Communist affiliations, as was the case with Wilson at the time. The Academy, in the awkward position of possibly conferring its highest honor on someone whose name had been omitted from screen credit, revised its bylaws at a special February 6, 1957, meeting. That revision, in essence, allowed that in such cases, the achievement itself could be eligible for nomination, but the specific writer would be ineligible. The following instructions were sent to Price Waterhouse & Co., Certified Public Accountants, who tabulated Academy ballots: \"...we ask that if, in tabulating the nominations ballots for Best Screenplay (adapted), Friendly Persuasion is one of the five nominations, you list the other four alphabetically by title and below: Friendly Persuasion - Achievement nominated, but writer ineligible for Award under Academy By-Laws.\" On February 17, 1957, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to instruct Price Waterhouse & Co. \"...to list five nominations, and in the event that one of these is declared ineligible under the By-Law provision, four nominations would appear on the final ballot.\" THIS NOMINATION WAS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FINAL BALLOT. (The bylaw was repealed by the Academy as \"unworkable\" on January 12, 1959.) On December 10, 2002, the Academy's Board of Governors voted to reinstate Mr. Wilson's nomination.

1953


Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Honored for : 5 Fingers

Nominations 1953 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama 5 Fingers
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture 5 Fingers

1952


Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama
Honored for : A Place in the Sun

Nominations 1952 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama A Place in the Sun
Academy Award for Best Screenplay 5 Fingers

1951


Academy Award for Best Screenplay
Honored for : A Place in the Sun

Nominations 1951 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Academy Award for Best Screenplay A Place in the Sun