Samuel Badisch Ornitz (November 15, 1890 – March 10, 1957) was an American screenwriter and novelist from New York City; he was one of the "Hollywood Ten"[2] who were blacklisted from the 1950s on by movie studio bosses after his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee when he was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about his alleged membership in the Communist Party.

[4] His first literary success was his debut novel Haunch Paunch and Jowl (1923), an "anonymous autobiography" about his Jewish roots, which gained national notice.

These included The Case of Lena Smith (1929), Chinatown Nights (1929), Hell's Highway (1932), Imitation of Life (1934), about a young mixed-race woman who passes as white; Mark of the Vampire (1935), Follow Your Heart (1936), Army Girl (1938), Little Orphan Annie (1938), They Live in Fear (1944), about Nazi Germany; and Circumstantial Evidence (1945).

[5]: 21  In 1933, he joined with Lester Cole and John Howard Lawson, both also later members of the Hollywood Ten, as founders of the Screen Writers Guild.

[5]: 17  Reviewers praise his rich description of Jewish quarter's physical environment,[7] and report that he "wrote about the Sabbath with the veneration of an awestruck child.