Bernard Gordon, a screenwriter blacklisted during Hollywood’s anti-Communist crusade in the 1950s, died of cancer on Friday May 11, 2007 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88.

Gordon wrote dozens of movies, but many never carried his name until the Writers Guild of America began restoring credits to blacklisted writers in 1980. Some of Mr. Gordon’s credits were restored.

Among Gordon's screenplays were The Day of the Triffids, Zombies of Mora Tau, and Earth Versus the Flying Saucers.

Mr. Gordon was born Oct. 29, 1918, in New Britain, Conn., and raised in New York City. He moved to Hollywood around 1940. He was declared physically unfit for the military and spent World War II working in the film industry. He also joined the Communist Party and was active in the Screen Readers Guild. His daughter said that Mr. Gordon eventually quit the party after revelations of Stalin’s crimes.

Mr. Gordon wrote two books: Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist (1999), and The Gordon File: A Screenwriter Recalls 20 Years of FBI Surveillance (2004).

Posted May 14, 2007