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Reginald Rose is a television writer most famous for his work in the early years of television drama. Born in Manhattan on December 10, 1920 he briefly attended City College before joining the Army, eventually earning the rank of First Lieutenant.
He sold his first teleplay, "Bus To Nowhere" in 1950 to CBS's live dramatic anthology program Studio One, for whom he would eventually write his breakaway hit 12 Angry Men in 1954. This drama, set entirely in the jury room of a manslaughter case, was inspired by a real-life experience. "It was such an impressive, solemn setting in a great big wood-paneled courtroom, with a silver-haired judge It knocked me out," he said of his jury-duty experience. "I was overwhelmed. I was on a jury for a manslaughter case, and we got into this terrific, furious, eight-hour argument in the jury room. I was writing one-hour dramas for 'Studio One' then and I thought, wow, what a setting for a drama."
Rose received an Emmy for his teleplay and an Oscar nomination for his 1957, feature-length adaptation. He would go on to write for all three networks, finding his greatest success with The Defenders in 1961, a weekly series court-room drama that he created and wrote for. For his efforts with The Defenders Rose would win an additional two emmy awards for dramatic writing.
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