Biography
Harold Jacob Smith (2 July 1912 – 28 December 1970) was an American screenwriter. Born in New York City, he worked primarily in film and television from the late 1940s onwards, often credited as Hal Smith on earlier projects.
His most notable credit was the co-written screenplay (with Nedrick Young, under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas) for The Defiant Ones (1958), which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Smith collaborated again with Young on the screenplay for Stanley Kramer's Inherit the Wind (1960), earning an Oscar nomination. Other credits include It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) and The River's Edge (1957).
