Michener Art Museum

Budd Schulberg

STAGE & SCREEN ARTIST, FICTION WRITER
BORN: March 27, 1914, New York City , New York
DIED: August 5, 2009, Westhampton Beach, New York

Budd Schulberg is a gifted writer whose novels, plays and screenplays often comment on the ills of modern American society. Schulberg has explored the ruthless ambition and obsessive materialism spawned by American capitalism. His writings deal with the American drive to succeed and its dynamics of success and failure. Among his most famous works are the controversial novel, What Makes Sammy Run? (1941), a story about a success driven office boy's quick rise to movie executive, and the film On the Waterfront (1954), concerning a young man's moral conflict as to whether he should inform the authorities about violent mob domination of the New York docks. The film won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay, and starred a young Marlon Brando. Schulberg, the son of producer and Hollywood mogul B.P. Schulberg, was raised in Hollywood and his much acclaimed autobiography, Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince, (1981) is a tribute to his parents and documents the rise of American film industry.