Ernest Kinoy
Encyclopedia
Early life
Kinoy was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on April 1, 1925; his father and mother were both high-school teachers. His older brother Arthur Kinoy
Arthur Kinoy
Arthur Kinoy , was an attorney and progressive civil rights leader who became a professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law—Newark. He was one of the founders of the Center for Constitutional Rights and successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.-Education:Kinoy was born on...
later became a leading constitutional lawyer. Kinoy attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people , led by Dr. Damian J...
and later Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, although his studies were interrupted by military service during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. During his army service with the 106th Infantry Division, Kinoy was made a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, and was interned at the Stalag IX-B
Stalag IX-B
Stalag IX-B also known as Bad Orb was a World War II German Army POW camp at Wegscheide close to Bad Orb in the province of Hesse, Germany...
camp but, as a Jewish POW, was subsequently sent to the slave labour camp at Berga
Berga, Thuringia
Berga/Elster is a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Weiße Elster, 14 km southeast of Gera....
.
Following his return from the war and graduation from Columbia, he joined NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
as a staff writer in 1948.
NBC years (1948 -1960)
During his time at NBC, Kinoy wrote scripts for many of the major NBC radio and television dramas of the 1950s, including the television anthology series Studio One and Playhouse 90Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
. He wrote the script for the short-lived series The Marriage
The Marriage
The Marriage was the first prime-time network television series to be broadcast regularly in color. It was a situation comedy broadcast live by NBC for seven episodes in the summer of 1954...
, which was an adaptation of a previous Kinoy-scripted radio show of the same name. The series, although well-received, was cancelled when the stars Hume Cronyn
Hume Cronyn
Hume Blake Cronyn, OC was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.-Early life:...
and Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...
chose to pursue their stage careers. He was also a writer for The Imogene Coca
Imogene Coca
Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....
Show, which ran for one season following the conclusion of her run on Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
in 1954.
Kinoy was a contributor of original stories, such as "The Martian Death March", to the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
radio series Dimension X
Dimension X
Dimension X was an NBC radio program broadcast on an unsponsored, sustaining basis from April 8, 1950 to September 29, 1951. The first 13 episodes were broadcast live, and the remainder were pre-recorded...
and X Minus One
X Minus One
X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC.-Overview:...
, as well as adapting stories by writers such as Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
and Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
for the two series. Along with George Lefferts
George Lefferts
George Lefferts is a writer, producer, playwright, poet, and director of television dramas, motion pictures, radio dramas, and socially conscious documentaries...
, Kinoy was a primary scriptwriter for the radio program Rocky Fortune
Rocky Fortune
Rocky Fortune was the title of an American radio drama that aired weekly on NBC Radio beginning in October 1953 . The series ended its run in March 1954 after 25 episodes. The program was created by George Lefferts...
, which starred Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and ran weekly on NBC from October 1953 through March 1954. Other contributions to NBC radio series included "Radio City Playhouse" and adaptations of an original story for the anthology program NBC Presents: Short Story
NBC Presents: Short Story
NBC Presents: Short Story was a half-hour program offering dramatizations of contemporary American short stories by famed writers such as William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Shirley Jackson....
.
1960s television work
Following his departure from NBC in 1960, Kinoy wrote scripts for episodes of popular television series including The Defenders, Naked CityNaked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
, Doctor Kildare and Shane
Shane (TV series)
Shane is an American Western television series based on the 1949 book of the same name by Jack Schaefer . The series was created by Herschel Daugherty and Gary Nelson, and starred David Carradine as the title character...
.
His script for the "Blacklist" episode of The Defenders, which guest-starred Jack Klugman
Jack Klugman
Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman is an American stage, film and television actor known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, and television and on Broadway...
as an actor unable to work in his profession due to being on the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
, won Kinoy his first Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in the Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama - Original category in 1964.
Kinoy wrote the television adaptations for the musical Brigadoon
Brigadoon
Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Songs from the musical, such as "Almost Like Being in Love" have become standards....
, a 1966 ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
production, and for NBC's Pinocchio, which aired in 1968.
He served as President of the Writers Guild of America, East
Writers Guild of America, East
Writers Guild of America, East is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770....
from 1969 to 1971.
1970s
Kinoy wrote the screenplays for two films starring Sidney PoitierSidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...
: Brother John which was released in 1971 and the 1972 western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
film Buck and the Preacher
Buck and the Preacher
Buck and the Preacher is a 1972 American Western film starring Sidney Poitier as Buck and Harry Belafonte as the Preacher. Buck is a trail guide leading groups of former slaves trying to homestead in the West, immediately after the American Civil War. The Preacher is a swindling minister of the...
, starring Poitier and Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
. Leadbelly
Leadbelly (film)
Leadbelly is a 1976 film chronicling the life of folk singer Huddie William Ledbetter . The film was directed by Gordon Parks, and starred Roger E. Mosley in the title role...
, based on the life of the blues musician Lead Belly and written by Kinoy was released in 1976.
The 1976 Kinoy-scripted television movie Victory at Entebbe
Victory at Entebbe
Victory at Entebbe is a made-for-television film from 1976 based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of Israeli hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda...
, made soon after the hostage-rescue operation at Entebbe Airport
Operation Entebbe
Operation Entebbe was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Special Forces of the Israel Defense Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week earlier, on 27 June, an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and...
was nominated for four Emmys, including a nomination for Kinoy.
Kinoy, along with William Blinn
William Blinn
William Frederick Blinn is an American screenwriter and television producer.-Career:Born in Toledo, Ohio, Blinn began his career in television in the 1960s. As a screenwriter, Blinn has written episodes of Rawhide, Here Come the Brides, Gunsmoke, The Rookies, and Fame...
, won an Emmy in 1977 for their script for the second episode of the miniseries Roots
Roots (TV miniseries)
Roots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's fictional novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still...
. Kinoy received another Emmy nomination as the head writer of the sequel to the series, Roots: The Next Generations
Roots: The Next Generations
Roots: The Next Generations is a 1979 television miniseries that continues the story of the family of Alex Haley from the 1880s, and their life in Henning, Tennessee, to the 1960s, with Haley researching his family history and his travels to Africa to learn of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte...
, in 1979.
1980s
The 1981 television movie SkokieSkokie (film)
Skokie is a 1981 television movie directed by Herbert Wise, based on the real life NSPA Controversy of Skokie, Illinois, which involved the National Socialist Party of America.The film premiered in the U.S. on November 17, 1981...
, a drama based on the real life NSPA Controversy of Skokie, Illinois won Kinoy a Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
, as well as a fifth Emmy nomination in the category Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or Special. He wrote the script for the 1986 HBO movie Murrow, based on the life of Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
, and the teleplay for the television adaptation of the Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
novel Lincoln
Lincoln (novel)
Lincoln is a historical novel, part of the Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal.Set during the American Civil War, the novel describes the presidency of Abraham Lincoln through the eyes of several historical figures, including presidential secretary John Hay, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln,...
.
1990s
Kinoy adapted the screenplay for the 1991 TV movie Chernobyl: The Final Warning from a book by Robert Peter GaleRobert Peter Gale
Robert Peter Gale is an American physician and medical researcher. Leukemia and other bone marrow disorders have been the central theme of Gale’s basic scientific and clinical research for over 35 years....
and Thomas Hauser
Thomas Hauser
Thomas Hauser is an American author.He made his debut as a writer in 1978 with The Execution of Charles Horman; An American Sacrifice. Horman's wife, Joyce and father, Ed Horman cooperated with Hauser on the book describing both the fate of Charles and his family's quest to uncover the truth in...
. Airing on TNT, the film starred Jon Voight
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....
and Jason Robards
Jason Robards
Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...
.
Plays and musicals
Kinoy wrote the "book" (story and spoken dialogue) for the musicalsMusical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Golden Rainbow
Golden Rainbow
Golden Rainbow is the title of a Broadway musical that opened in 1968. It starred Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé for its entire run until it closed in early 1969....
, Bajour
Bajour (musical)
Bajour is a musical with a book by Ernest Kinoy and music and lyrics by Walter Marks. The musical is based on the Joseph Mitchell short stories The Gypsy Women and The King of the Gypsies published in The New Yorker...
and Chaplin
Chaplin (musical)
Chaplin is a musical announced for Broadway in 1981 about the early life of the silent film star Charlie Chaplin. Financial troubles forced postponements and the eventual demise of the project. In 1993, the script and score were re-discovered and a smaller version was produced in Miami winning a...
.
In 1962, Kinoy wrote the play Something About a Soldier: A Comedy-drama in Three Acts, which was based on the 1957 novel by Mark Harris
Mark Harris (author)
Mark Harris was an American novelist, literary biographer, and educator.-Early life:Harris was born Mark Harris Finklestein in Mount Vernon, New York to Carlyle and Ruth Klausner Finkelstein...
. Starring Ken Kercheval
Ken Kercheval
Ken Kercheval is an American actor, best known for his role as Cliff Barnes on the television series Dallas....
, Tony Roberts
Tony Roberts (actor)
David Anthony "Tony" Roberts is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in several Woody Allen movies, usually cast as Allen's best friend.-Early life:...
and Sal Mineo
Sal Mineo
Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. , was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause...
, the play had a short run at the Ambassador Theatre
Ambassador Theatre (New York)
The Ambassador Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 219 West 49th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp for the Shuberts, the structure is unusual in that it is situated diagonally on its site to fit the maximum number of...
on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in January of that year.
Personal life
Kinoy was married to Barbara Powers, a Doctor of Psychotherapy, psychiatric social worker and an authority on the treatment of eating disorders, from 1948 until her death in 2007. They had two children.External links
- Ernest Kinoy - Archive of American Television Interview - 10 part video interview with Kinoy conducted by the Archive of American TelevisionArchive of American TelevisionThe Archive of American Television is a division of the non-profit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from all aspects of the television industry....