Oscar Millard (March 1, 1908 – December 7, 1990) was an Englishwriter who published two books set in Belgium before finding success inHollywood as a screenwriter.
In 1936 Millard published a biography ofAdolphe Max, who had been mayor of Brussels during theFirst World War and had been imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with theoccupying forces.[1] He followed this in 1937 with a novel inspired by the clandestine wartime newspaperLa Libre Belgique, entitledUncensored.[2] In 1942, this was adapted for the screen asUncensored, withTerence Rattigan as the main scriptwriter. The setting was updated to the contemporaryGerman occupation of Belgium during World War II.[2]
Hollywood success came after the war, when Millard collaborated on thescreenplay forCome to the Stable, a comedy about nuns. He fared better the following year when he picked up anAcademy Award nomination for the gritty war movieThe Frogmen (1951).[3]
Millard's output after that was less successful though interesting: theJames StewartthrillerNo Highway in the Sky (1951) andOtto Preminger's full-guns-blazingfemme fatale movieAngel Face (1952).
Millard's reputation was considerably tarnished after writing theJohn Wayne-Susan HaywardbarbarianepicThe Conqueror (1956). The film was panned by critics, and a legend circulated that filming downwind of a lake bed where theAtomic Energy Commission had tested 11 nuclear weapons the year before caused a cancer outbreak among the cast and crew; in reality, the number of people associated with the film that developed cancer was about the same, percentage-wise, as the general US population.[4]
After that, Millard found consistent work on television, writing scripts for such shows asWagon Train,The Alfred Hitchcock Hour for which his was awarded in 2013 by the Writers Guild of America (101 Best written TV Series) andTwelve O'Clock High.
During the last two decades of his life, Millard contributed articles about Hollywood to theLos Angeles Times. To theNew York Times, he contributed travel articles about Austria, where he traveled extensively and met his second wife.[5]
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