Playwright and actor, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. In 1931 he joined the Group Theater, New York City, becoming a leading US playwright in the 1930s. His works are marked by a strong social conscience, and grew largely from the conditions of the Great Depression. They included Waiting for Lefty, Till the Day I Die (both 1935), and Golden Boy (1937). Among his film scripts were The General Died at Dawn (1936), None but the Lonely Heart (1944, which he directed), and The Big Knife (1955). During the 1940s he took up painting, producing more than 600 works during 1945–57.