He sold his first teleplay, Bus to Nowhere, in 1950 to the live CBS dramatic anthology program Studio One, for which he wrote Twelve Angry Men four years later. He died in 2002 from complications of heart failure. Rose was married twice, to Barbara Langbart in 1943, with whom he had four children, and to Ellen McLaughlin in 1963, with whom he had two children.

Army in 1942-46, where he became a first lieutenant. His realistic approach helped create the slice of life school of television drama, which was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the 1950s.īorn in Manhattan, Rose attended Townsend High School and briefly attended City College (now part of the City University of New York) before serving in the U.S. Rose's work is marked by its treatment of controversial social and political issues. Reginald Rose (Decem– April 19, 2002) was an American film and television writer most widely known for his work in the early years of television drama. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.

More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture to form of them-and of America, at its best and worst.Īfter the critically acclaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American drama went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. A landmark American drama that inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival-featuring an introduction by David MametĪ blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S.

Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose