Unknown author · Public domain

Clifford Odets emerged in the mid-1930s as American theatre's most talked-about young playwright, writing socially charged dramas for the Group Theatre that were seen as a possible successor to Eugene O'Neill and that shaped a generation of writers, including Arthur Miller, Paddy Chayefsky and Neil Simon. He moved between Broadway and Hollywood screenwriting for the rest of his career, though his later plays found less success. In 1952, called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he testified as a cooperating witness and named former Communist Party associates, a decision that cost him public standing he never fully recovered.