He Was A Contender

A legend has passed away, but he lived a long life and created one of cinema's most iconic movies and moments with "On the Waterfront."

Screenwriter ("On the Waterfront," and "A Face in the Crowd" -- two Elia Kazan classis) and novelist Budd Schulberg (the great "What Makes Sammy Run?") has died at the age of 95.

Here's more:

"Schulberg had working knowledge of the movie business; he was the son of Paramount studio head B.P. Schulberg. And like the 'On the Waterfront' hero Malloy, who testifies about corruption on the docks, Schulberg informed on his peers. In 1951, he named names as he acknowledged a Communist past before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In 2003, Schulberg was voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as an 'observer,' a category established the previous year for journalists and historians. In his later years, he worked on a memoir, drawing upon correspondence with Robert Kennedy, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

"He was a supporter of Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and was among the last to speak with the Democratic candidate before he was assassinated in Los Angeles.

Schulberg remained active in his 90s, collaborating in 2008 on a stage version of 'On the Waterfront' presented at the famous Fringe arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. He told The New York Times that he always felt Brando's character should realistically have been killed in the end for testifying against organized crime. But the director of the festival play stuck with a happy ending, just as Kazan had done a half-century earlier, Schulberg said.

"Schulberg's prose was scrappy and streetwise, but the streets of his childhood were well paved. Born in New York City, he grew up in Hollywood and remembered riding in a fancy Lincoln town car, complete with gold wicker and carriage lights.

"'I hated that car so much that when I had to be driven to school in it I would lie on the floor and crawl out a block away so my school mates wouldn't see my shame,' he recalled years later."

Read more here. And rest in peace Mr. Schulberg.

And re-watch this iconic moment from his most famous movie: