Abby Mann, 1927 - 2008.

Abby Mann, the screenwriter who brought incisive characterization and a searing sense of justice to Judgment at Nuremberg and other social dramas, died on Tuesday in Beverly Hills. He was 80.... Writing in Commentary, Jason Epstein said the movie, directed by Stanley Kramer, was "astonishingly intelligent" and raised "some of the darkest questions of this dark age."

Mr Mann followed his Nuremberg script with more than four decades of serious dramas, many for movies made for television, a genre he helped pioneer. He won three Emmys for television movies. His scripts, often derived from real cases, delivered withering critiques of the criminal justice system, frequently examining the denial of the rights of the accused.

Douglas Martin, New York Times.

Updated through 3/30.

His Emmy-winning television movie The Marcus-Nelson Murders (1973) was a socially-committed crime drama about a detective who suspects a black youth is being framed. It was based on a real case, but significantly Mann introduced a fictional character who would go on to his own series and become one of the most familiar television detectives of the 1970s - the bald-headed, lollipop-sucking lieutenant Theo Kojak.

The London Times.

See also: Wikipedia.

Update, 3/30: "His subjects were the Holocaust, racism, social deprivation and injustices in the American legal system," writes Ronald Bergan in the Guardian. "Nor did he mind that his scripts were labelled didactic. His main aim was to edify and instruct, mainly through television movies, while also attempting to entertain."

Posted by dwhudson at March 28, 2008 7:02 AM