Biography of Reginald Rose

Reginald Rose is most famous as a television writer, acclaimed for his teleplays in the
"Golden Age" of television. Born and raised in New York City, he lived there until he
enlisted during World War II, returning to pursue a career in writing.

Among other awards, Rose won three Emmys in his lifetime and was nominated for a
total of six. Rose is most well-known for writing teleplays. However, he also found
success writing for the stage, as well as for regular television programming.

Rose notably wrote teleplays for CBS's Studio One. Plays include 'The Bus to Nowhere,'
'12:32 a.m.,' 'An Almanac of Liberty,' 'Crime in the Streets,' and 'Twelve Angry Men,'
Rose's most known teleplay. 'Twelve Angry Men' continued to have a remarkable life as
a landmark film, greatly expanded upon from the original teleplay, and a successful
stage play.
Rose's plays are known for their direct handling of social problems and the political
arena, uncharacteristic of a medium usually preoccupied with private, interpersonal
relationships. Rose's work was unapologetic, confronting these issues directly.

While dealing with social issues, Rose was known as a master craftsman for television,
as displayed by his incredible mastery of naturalism in this "slice of life"
medium. Twelve Angry Men's success as a movie marked a major contribution of Rose
and television for film, influencing the future of American cinematography.

Reginald Rose
Reginald Rose (December 10, 1920 – April 19, 2002) was
an American film and television writer most widely known for his work in the early
years of television drama. Rose's work is marked by its treatment of controversial
social and political issues. His realistic approach helped create the slice of life school of
television drama, which was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the
1950s.

Biography
Born in Manhattan, Rose attended Townsend High School and briefly attended City
College (now part of the City University of New York) before serving in the U.S.
Army in 1942-46, where he became a first lieutenant.
Rose was married twice, to Barbara Langbart in 1943, with whom he had four children,
and to Ellen McLaughlin (not the playwright and actor) in 1963, with whom he had two
children. He died in 2002 from complications of heart failure.

Television
He sold his first teleplay, Bus to Nowhere, in 1950 to the live CBS dramatic anthology
program Studio One, for which he wrote Twelve Angry Men four years later. This latter
drama, set entirely in a room where a jury is deliberating the fate of a teenage boy
accused of murder, was inspired by Rose's service on just such a trial. The play was
later made into a black-and-white film.
The Internet Movie Database quotes Rose's memories of this experience: "It was such
an impressive, solemn setting in a great big wood-paneled courtroom, with a silver-
haired judge, it knocked me out. I was overwhelmed. I was on a jury for a
manslaughter case, and we got into this terrific, furious, eight-hour argument in the
jury room. I was writing one-hour dramas for Studio One then, and I thought, wow,
what a setting for a drama."[1]
Rose received an Emmy for his teleplay and an Oscar nomination for its 1957 feature-
length film adaptation. Rose wrote for all three of the major broadcast networks of the
1950-80 period. He created and wrote for The Defenders in 1961, a weekly courtroom
drama spun off from one of Rose's episodes of Studio One; The Defenders would go
on to win two Emmy awards for dramatic writing.

Twilight Zone
His teleplay The Incredible World of Horace Ford was the basis for an episode of The
Twilight Zone in 1963 starring Pat Hingle, Nan Martin, and Ruth White. The episode
was broadcast on April 18, 1963, on CBS as Episode 15 of Season Four. The theme
was how the past is always glorified due to the repression and self-censorship of the
negative aspects: we remember the good while we forget the bad. The teleplay had
originally appeared as a Studio One episode in 1955.

Films
Rose was a screenwriter, beginning with Crime in the Streets (1956), an adaptation of
his 1955 teleplay for The Elgin Hour. He made four movies with
the British producer Euan Lloyd: The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, Who Dares
Wins and Wild Geese II.

Plays

 The Porcelain Year (1950)

 Twelve Angry Men (1954)
 Black Monday (1962)
 Dear Friends (1968)
 This Agony, This Triumph (1972)