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Full articleAlfred Hayes (April 18, 1911 – August 14, 1985) was a British-born American screenwriter, novelist, and poet known for his collaborations on landmark Italian neorealist films, his hard-boiled Hollywood fiction, and his influential protest poetry from the 1930s labor movement.
Born in London in 1911 into a Jewish family, Hayes emigrated to New York City at age three and later attended City College of New York. In the 1930s, he worked as a newspaper reporter and emerged as a poet, with two poems set to music becoming enduring labor anthems: “Into the Streets May First” (with Aaron Copland) and “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” (with Earl Robinson). He briefly belonged to the Young Communist League before serving in the U.S. Army Special Services in Europe during World War II, experiences that deeply shaped his postwar writing.
In Rome after the war, Hayes co-wrote the screenplay for Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946), a pivotal neorealist work nominated for an Academy Award. He continued screenwriting in Hollywood and Italy, contributing to films including Fred Zinnemann's Teresa (1951) and A Hatful of Rain (1957), Fritz Lang's Clash by Night (1952) and Human Desire (1954), and Robert Rossen's Island in the Sun (1957). His novels, such as The Girl on the Via Flaminia, In Love (1953), and My Face for the World to See (1958), offered sharp portraits of postwar disillusionment and the Hollywood milieu. Later, Hayes wrote for television, including episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Mannix. He died on August 14, 1985, in Sherman Oaks, California, from meningitis.
In brief
Alfred Hayes (18 April 1911 – 14 August 1985) was an American screenwriter, television writer, novelist, and poet, who worked in Italy as well as the United States. His well-known poem about "Joe Hill" ("I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night") was set to music by Earl Robinson, and performed by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Paul Robeson, and many other artists.
