Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 â€" 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. Biberman's
pre-blacklist 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.Though he would become firmly
pro-war after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, during the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, his outspoken opposition to U.S. Lend-Lease
to the United Kingdom was so intense, the FBI suspected Biberman (who
was actually Jewish) of being a Nazi. In 1947, the Congressional House
Committee on Un-American Activities began its investigation into the
film industry, and Biberman became one of ten Hollywood writers and
directors cited for contempt of Congress when they refused to answer
questions about their Communist Party USA affiliation. Biberman and
the others were imprisoned for their contempt convictions, Biberman
for six months. Edward Dmytryk ultimately cooperated with the House
committee, but Biberman and the others were blacklisted by the
Hollywood studios.Biberman worked independently after his release from
jail. The result was Salt of the Earth (1954), a fictionalized account
of the Grant County miners' strike. The screenplay was by Michael
Wilson and it was produced by Paul Jarrico, neither members of the Ten
but they were both also blacklisted. Salt of the Earth has been deemed
"culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and
selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Herbert Biberman Biography, Weight & Height, Age, Nationality & Ethnicity
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