Joshua Shelley

Joshua Shelley, born Joshua Kurzweil on January 27, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York, was an actor whose stage and screen career spanned several decades. He died on February 16, 1990.

Shelley became a founding member of The Actors Studio when it was established in 1947. His film debut came in 1949 with City Across the River, a feature that earned him an enthusiastic reception. His early Hollywood work was cut short, however, when the House Un-American Activities Committee's 1952 investigation of the Communist Party in Hollywood resulted in Shelley being placed on the studios' blacklist. He did not resume regular work in Hollywood until 1973.

During the years of his Hollywood exile, Shelley remained active in the theater, appearing on both Broadway and off-Broadway stages. His Broadway career ran from 1944 to 1955 and included productions such as the revue Phoenix '55, the musical On Your Toes, The Girl in Pink Tights, Four Twelves Are 48, and The Liars. His screen work throughout his career, both before and after the blacklist period, consisted primarily of television appearances.

In 1976, Shelley appeared in The Front, a film that addressed the blacklist era directly. The production reunited him with a number of fellow blacklistees, among them actors Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and director Martin Ritt, who had also been a member of The Actors Studio.