Peter Viertel, a WWII veteran whose first novel was published to glowing reviews when he was only 18, was born of parents of the European intelligentsia, refugees from Adolf Hitler's Europe. Brought up in Hollywood, in a household where Greta Garbo (his mother's closest friend), Bertolt Brecht Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann and Franz Werfel were constant guests, young Peter yearned to be an American. In need of money to be able to continue writing his novels and to support his first wife, Jigee, Viertel turned to writing scripts for Hollywood, where he soon found himself in the orbit of John Huston, the legendary director of The Maltese Falcon (1941). Peter died in Marbella, Spain, nineteen days following the death of his second wife, actress Deborah Kerr.

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

See photos of celebrities before they hit the big-time.

Peter Viertel

Writer

Thanks

Self

Archive Footage

Archive Sound