Norma Barzman

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Norma Barzman
Publicity Photo of Norma Barzman
Born
Norma Levor

(1920-09-15)September 15, 1920
DiedDecember 17, 2023(2023-12-17) (aged 103)
Alma materRadcliffe College
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • actress
  • writer
Years active1946–2000
Spouses
  • (m. 1940; div. 1941)
  • (m. 1942; died 1989)
Children7, including Paolo

Norma Levor Barzman (September 15, 1920 – December 17, 2023) was an American journalist, screenwriter, actress and novelist [1] who was active in the film industry in the Golden Age of Hollywood.[2][3][4]

Life and career[edit]

Barzman was born on September 15, 1920, in New York City, New York. She attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[5] She started her career in 1946 writing the original story for Never Say Goodbye and The Locket. Later, she also wrote Finishing School (1952) and Il triangolo rosso (1967).[6]

Barzman also appeared as an actress[7] in Theatre 70 (1970) and Pajama Party (2000) as the Groovy Grandma guest.[8]

Personal life[edit]

Barzman married mathematician Claude Shannon,[9] known as the "father of information theory",[10] and lived with him in Princeton, New Jersey. When they divorced, Barzman moved to Los Angeles with her mother and took classes at the School for Writers, the members of which were leftist. She met and married screenwriter Ben Barzman.[11] Between the years 1949 and 1976 they lived in London, Paris, and Mougins (France), having been blacklisted from Hollywood. They had seven children.[12]

Barzman died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on December 17, 2023, at the age of 103.[13]

Filmography[edit]

Writer[edit]

Actress[edit]

  • Pajama Party (2000) - Groovy Grandma guest
  • Theatre 70 (1960) - Narrator

Documentary[edit]

Books[edit]

  • The End of Romance: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin (2006)[14]
  • The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate (2002)[15]
  • Rich Dreams (1982)[16]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Norma BARZMAN". Festival de Cannes 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  2. ^ "Norma Barzman". UCLA. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  3. ^ Rampell, Ed (January 1, 2005). Progressive Hollywood: A People's Film History of the United States. Red Wheel Weiser. ISBN 978-1-932857-10-8.
  4. ^ Prime, Rebecca (January 14, 2014). Hollywood Exiles in Europe: The Blacklist and Cold War Film Culture. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-6263-6.
  5. ^ Leovy, Jill (January 11, 2024). "Norma Barzman, blacklisted screenwriter who took on Hollywood, dies at 103". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  6. ^ Wald, Alan M. (October 15, 2012). American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War. UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8078-3734-4.
  7. ^ McDonagh, Fintan (July 21, 2021). Edward Dmytryk: Reassessing His Films and Life. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-4314-4.
  8. ^ "Blacklisted screenwriter Norma Barzman opens 'Hollywood Exiles in Europe' series". UCLA. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  9. ^ Guardian Staff (October 21, 2005). "I was a Hollywood communist". the Guardian. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  10. ^ "I saw this movie last August at a showing at the Computer History Museum and one... | Hacker News". news.ycombinator.com. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  11. ^ "Tender Comrades, interviews with blacklisted film industry figures by Paul Buhle (by L. Proyect)". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  12. ^ "Norma Barzman, now 102, victim Hollywood blacklist: "Marilyn Monroe came to warn us"". filmtalk.org. August 23, 2022.
  13. ^ Feinberg, Scott (December 19, 2023). "Norma Barzman, Screenwriter Who Was Among the Last Survivors of the Hollywood Blacklist, Dies at 103". The Hollywood Reporter.
  14. ^ Norma Barzman (March 1, 2006). The End of Romance A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 978-1-56025-813-1.
  15. ^ "9781560254669: The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate (Nation Books) - AbeBooks - Barzman, Norma: 1560254661". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  16. ^ "9780446900348: Rich Dreams - AbeBooks - Ben And Norma Barzman: 0446900346". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved November 27, 2021.

External links[edit]