Don Mankiewicz (born January 20, 1922) is a screenwriter.Born in Berlin, Germany, he is the son of Sara (Aaronson) and Herman J. Mankiewicz. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for I Want to Live! (1958). Among his many television credits are Ironside, for which he wrote the pilot, the original Star Trek (episode "Court Martial") and the mini-series adaptation of President John F. Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage. His son is screenwriter/producer John Mankiewicz.
[about Neville Brand, with whom he worked on a TV adaptation of "All The King's Men"] Neville Brand was a good actor, but what he's famous for is that he was blacklisted at Universal. He was a drunk and he pissed on a tour bus filled with tourists. He didn't work at Universal after that.
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[in a 1992 interview] I've been at this business for just about as long as anybody alive and I have plenty more ideas to try to get people interested in. Besides, I've made no provision for my old age; if I get to be 84, I'll still have to be working!
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Fact
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Served in the U.S. Army during World War II.
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Raised in Beverly Hills and completed studies at Columbia University.
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Worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker, which led to his television career in 1951.
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One of his earliest jobs in the entertainment industry was as a gag writer for comedian Robert Q. Lewis.
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