Roland Kibbee

Roland Kibbee (February 15, 1914 – August 5, 1984) was an American writer, producer, and Broadway performer born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, who died in Encino, California. He built a career that spanned radio, film, television, and the stage.

Kibbee entered the entertainment industry through radio in 1931, writing alongside Jack Lescoulie and later collaborating with Nat Hiken on The Grouch Club, a series starring Lescoulie. He subsequently joined Fred Allen's writing staff and contributed material for Groucho Marx. During World War II he served in the U.S. Air Force, and following his discharge he co-wrote, with Joseph Fields, the screenplay for the Marx Brothers' 1946 film A Night in Casablanca.

His film career became closely tied to actor and producer Burt Lancaster. Kibbee contributed to several Lancaster productions, including The Crimson Pirate (1952), Vera Cruz (1954), The Devil's Disciple (1959), and Valdez Is Coming (1971). The two formed a production company called Norlan Productions, through which they jointly wrote, produced, and directed The Midnight Man (1974). Among his other notable film credits was The Appaloosa (1966). Late in his career, Kibbee co-wrote the book for the 1976 Broadway musical Home Sweet Homer, a Yul Brynner vehicle that closed after a single performance. His Broadway work also included Achilles Had a Heel, with his stage credits dating back to 1935.

In television, Kibbee wrote for The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, a role that producer Norman Lear, in a 2015 Variety interview, identified as central — noting that while he himself occasionally wrote opening monologues for the program, Kibbee was its primary writer. Lear credited both Kibbee and Hiken as his two principal mentors. Kibbee also created the series It Takes a Thief and wrote for The Virginian and Columbo. He received Emmy Awards for his work on the 1961 series The Bob Newhart Show, Columbo, and Barney Miller. He is additionally credited, without on-screen acknowledgment, as the author of the final voiceover script used in the theatrical release of Blade Runner, a project on which Hampton Fancher, David Peoples, and Darryl Ponicsan had each written rejected versions.

In the early 1950s, screenwriter Martin Berkeley named Kibbee, along with 155 others, as a former member of the Communist Party before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Kibbee had joined the party in 1937 through the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and left three years later following the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He was also named by Harold Hecht, an executive at Hecht-Lancaster. Kibbee subsequently testified before the committee, believing he was naming only those who had already named him. Journalist Victor Navasky, in his definitive account of the Hollywood blacklist, Naming Names, interviewed Kibbee and determined that, like a number of other witnesses, Kibbee had in fact provided names not previously known to the committee. Following his testimony, Kibbee severed his direct relationship with Hecht, though he continued working for the company on a freelance basis and maintained his personal friendship with Lancaster, whom he reportedly advised to distance himself from Hecht. Lancaster had been a public critic of the committee.