Biography
Jean Rouverol was an American actress and screenwriter. Born in St Louis, Missouri, she made her screen debut playing Mildred Bissonette, the daughter of W.C. Fields, in the 1934 comedy It's a Gift. She appeared in supporting roles in a number of 1930s films, including Private Worlds (1935), Stage Door (1937) and Bar 20 Rides Again (1935), and performed on radio before moving into screenwriting.
In 1940 she married screenwriter Hugo Butler. The couple joined the American Communist Party and, after being subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, went into self-exile in Mexico with their children for thirteen years, writing scripts under fronts and pseudonyms. Rouverol later wrote for television series including Guiding Light and an episode of Little House on the Prairie, and published the memoir Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years in 2000. She died in Wingdale, New York, in 2017.
