Ted Berkman (1914–2006)

Ted Berkman was the pen name of Edward Oscar Berkmann, born to a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Cornell University in 1933, and then earned a degree from Columbia University. He worked as a journalist and photo editor for the New York Mirror and wrote a couple of early film scripts. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. After the war, he became a foreign correspondent and later was an informal adviser to Edward R. Murrow on foreign affairs and appeared regularly on television programs.
In the 1950s, Berkman worked primarily as a screenwriter, with his best known film being Fear Strikes Out (1957), based on the book by Boston Red Sox player Jimmy Piersall about his battle with bipolar disorder. Berkman's own first book, Cast a Giant Shadow (1962), was a biography of Col. David "Mickey" Marcus, a West Point graduate killed while advising the Israeli military during the 1948 War of Independence. He also wrote the screenplay when the book was adapted into a 1966 film.
Over his 60-year career, Berkman wrote seven books and seven movies. His final book, a memoir, was published in 1998.
Ted
Berkman died of cancer in Santa Barbara, California.