Abby Mann

Oscar-winning screenwriter Abby Mann has just died.

He started in television during the golden age of TV drama and was later executive producer of Kojak, but is best known as the writer of socially conscious films in the 60s such as Judgment At Nuremberg and Ship Of Fools.

He believed in movies with a message. Not really my cup of tea, but it's still good to have such writers around to keep everyone else honest.

I should add one of his last works was the teleplay for a show about the McMartin preschool trial that aired on HBO. He exposed the case for the sham that it was, even at a time when the witch hunt hysteria over any claim of child abuse hadn't yet subsided.