Richard J. Collins was an American producer, director and screenwriter prominent in Hollywood during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He worked on several notable television programs including Bonanza, General Electric Theater, Matlock and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre. He was married to actress Dorothy Comingore from 1939 until 1945. One of the characters in the film Guilty by Suspicion was based on his character although he and Dorothy Comingore were long divorced before the HUAC hearings.
Collins' first position was as a script reader at Columbia Pictures, where he stayed for a few months before he was offered a junior writer position at Fox. During the 1930s, Collins would work for some of the biggest studios in Hollywood, including RKO Pictures, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. He wrote or co-wrote many screenplays during this period, including some that would get him in trouble with HUAC in later years, like Song of Russia. He had a successful film career up until the Hollywood 19 were called to testify before HUAC in October, 1947. At that time he agreed with the rest of the so-called unfriendly witnesses to plead the First Amendment Rights of free speech. Only Ten of the nineteen were called and it wasn't until 1951 that Collins was called to testify before HUAC. By this time his politics had changed and he agreed to testify becoming one of the first "friendly witnesses."
HUAC and the blacklist controversy
Collins admitted to formerly being a member of the Communist Party, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, Writers' Mobilization, the Joint Anti-Fascist Committee, and the Progressive Citizens of America. Despite his past, Collins claimed that he stopped paying his Communist dues in 1939. Collins became infamous for naming people he knew to be in the Communist Party, even close friends. In all, he ultimately named 26 of his colleagues. Despite being heavily involved in the Communist movement in the 1930s, when he attended four to five meetings a week, he professed that he no longer followed their doctrine and never saw anything he did as an effort to undermine the security of the United States.
Later career
After clearing his name in front of the HUAC, Collins was hired by Walter Wagner to write Haji Baba and then Riot in Cell Block 11, directed by Don Siegel. He wrote the treatment for the famous cult film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which he said was based on his experience with the Communist Party and with HUAC. He also wrote screenplays for Pay or Die, Spanish Affair and The Badlanders. Later he wrote for television, including General Electric Theater, 87th Precinct, and Remington Steele. In 1963 he became a television producer for the TV seriesBreaking Point, followed by Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater. His big break came when he became producer of the television series Bonanza. In 1976, he was the executive producer of the short-lived western series Sara. The final major production that he worked on was the series Matlock in the 1980s.
