Ben Maddow (aka David Wolff;[1] August 7, 1909 – October 9, 1992)[2] was an American screenwriter and documentarian from the 1930s through the 1970s.
[3] Educated at Columbia University, Maddow began his career working within the American documentary movement in the 1930s.
Under the pseudonym of David Wolff, Maddow co-wrote the screenplay to the Paul Strand–Leo Hurwitz documentary landmark, Native Land (1942).
Other screenplays include Clarence Brown's Intruder in the Dust (1949, an adaptation of the William Faulkner novel), John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950, for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Johnny Guitar (1954, credited to Philip Yordan who wrote it on location), God's Little Acre (1958, an adaptation of the Erskine Caldwell novel, originally credited to Philip Yordan as a HUAC-era "front" for Maddow, and with title card restored to Maddow, only, during the UCLA Film and Television Archive restoration), and, again with Huston, an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Screenplay) and The Unforgiven (1960).
As a documentarian he directed and wrote such films as Storm of Strangers, The Stairs, and The Savage Eye (1959), which won the BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award.