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Abraham Polonsky Overview:

Director, Abraham Polonsky, was born Abraham Lincoln Polonsky on Dec 5, 1910 in New York City, NY. Polonsky died at the age of 88 on Oct 26, 1999 in Beverly Hills, CA .

HONORS and AWARDS:

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Although Polonsky was nominated for one Oscar, he never won a competitive Academy Award.

Academy Awards

YearAwardFilm nameRoleResult
1947Best WritingBody and Soul (1947)N/ANominated
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Best Writing Oscar 1947
WINNER
Valentine Davies
Miracle on 34th Street
WINNER
Sidney Sheldon
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
WINNER
George Seaton
Miracle on 34th Street
Nominee
Georges Chaperot, Rene Wheeler
A Cage of Nightingales
Nominee
Herbert Clyde Lewis, Frederick Stephani
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
Nominee
Eleazar Lipsky
Kiss of Death
Nominee
Dorothy Parker, Frank Cavett
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman
Nominee

Body and Soul
Nominee
Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
A Double Life
Nominee
Charles Chaplin
Monsieur Verdoux
Nominee
Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, C. G. Viola, Cesare Zavattini
Shoe-Shine
Nominee
Richard Murphy
Boomerang!
Nominee
John Paxton
Crossfire
Nominee
Moss Hart
Gentleman's Agreement
Nominee
David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame
Great Expectations
See more Academy Awards>>
Abraham Polonsky Facts
UC Riverside has a fiction prize, named for Polonsky, given to the writer of the best short-story in their annual literary magazine. Harry Lawton, an instructor at the university, wrote a non-fiction book called "Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt" which was the inspiration for a script by Jack B. Sowards and purportedly the inspiration for Polonsky's script for Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969). In an interview with Soward at the WGA website, he claims that years after he'd given up on the script he wrote, Polonsky came by his office at Universal asking what time it was. When Soward asked what was wrong with his watch, Polonsky said, "There's nothing wrong with my watch. I just wanted to meet the man who wrote MY script." Apparently people who had read Soward's script years back were complimenting Polonsky on his decision to direct it, not realizing/knowing that he wrote an original screenplay for the movie.
Polonsky, a victim of the blacklist, was so offended when director Irwin Winkler changed the main character (a director who is blacklisted after refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee) of his script for Guilty by Suspicion (1991) from a Communist Party member to a relatively apolitical liberal that he not only had his name taken off of the picture, he also refused an executive producer credit that would have earned him a substantial fee. Polonsky was very vocal in the press about his anger with Winkler and his disapproval over the resulting movie.
Interviewed in "The Director's Event: Interviews with Five American Filmmakers", by Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin.
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