Waldo Salt
Poster for Waldo Salt: a Screenwriter's Journey (1990)
Born	Waldo Miller Salt (1914-10-18)October 18, 1914 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	March 7, 1987(1987-03-07) (aged 72) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Arthur Behrstock M.L. Davenport Mel Davenport
Occupation	Screenwriter
Years active	1937–1978
Spouses	Amber Dana ​ ​ (m. 1938; div. 1941)​ Mary Davenport (m. 1942; divorced) Gladys Schwartz ​ ​ (m. 1969; died 1981)​ Eve Merriam ​ (m. 1983)​
Children	2 with Davenport (incl.Jennifer Salt)

Waldo Miller Salt^[1] (October 18, 1914 – March 7, 1987) was an Americanscreenwriter. He wrote theAcademy Award-winning screenplays forMidnight Cowboy (1969) andComing Home (1978).

Salt was born inChicago, Illinois, the son of Winifred (née Porter) and William Haslem Salt, an artist and business executive.^[2] He graduated fromStanford University in 1934.^[3] The first of the nineteen films he wrote or co-wrote was released in 1937 with the titleThe Bride Wore Red.

Salt's career inHollywood was interrupted when he wasblacklisted after refusing to testify before theHouse Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951. Like many other blacklisted writers, while he was unable to work in Hollywood, Salt wrote under a pseudonym for the British television seriesThe Adventures of Robin Hood.^[4]

After the collapse of the blacklist, Salt wonAcademy Awards forBest Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium andBest Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for his work onMidnight Cowboy andComing Home respectively, as well as earning a nomination for the former forSerpico.

Salt is featured in the extras for the Criterion Collection'sMidnight Cowboy blu-ray release, specifically in an audio interview with Michael Childers; many photos of Waldo Salt can be seen here as he was a collaborator for the screenplay. The documentary listed below,Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, is also featured on the disc.^{[citation needed]}

Salt was married four times. The first was to Amber Dana (1938-1941), then to actress Mary Davenport (married in 1942) with whom he had two children, actress/writer/producerJennifer, and Deborah; both marriages ended in divorce.^[5] After his divorce from Davenport, he married Gladys Schwartz in 1969, and remained together until her death in 1981. He was married toplaywrightEve Merriam from 1983 until his death inLos Angeles on March 7, 1987; he was 72.^[5][6]

Waldo Salt was the subject of a 1990 documentaryWaldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, which featured interviews withDustin Hoffman,Robert Redford,Jon Voight,John Schlesinger and other collaborators and friends.

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, first presented in 1992, is awarded at theSundance Film Festival annually. It is determined by the dramatic jury, and recognizes outstanding screenwriting in a film screened at the festival that year.^[7]

Media related toWaldo Salt at Wikimedia Commons

• Waldo Salt atIMDb
• Waldo Salt from theAmerican Masters website
• Waldo Salt Papers, an inventory of papers kept in theUCLA Library
• Works by Waldo Salt atOpen Library

• Waldo Salt
• 1914 births
• 1987 deaths
• American communists
• American male screenwriters
• Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
• Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
• Best Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
• Hollywood blacklist
• Screenwriters from Chicago
• Stanford University alumni
• Writers Guild of America Award winners
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American screenwriters

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