---
name: "Peter Viertel"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/peter-viertel"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "16 November 1920"
died: "4 November 2007"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-20T02:18:22.335394+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Peter Viertel

Writer. Born 16 November 1920 in Dresden, Germany. Died 4 November 2007.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 16 November 1920, Dresden, Germany
- **Died:** 4 November 2007
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Viertel, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q711701, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0896830/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/38240

## Biography

Peter Viertel was a writer and screenwriter. Born in Dresden, Germany, on 16 November 1920, he moved to Hollywood as a child with his parents, the director and writer Berthold Viertel and the screenwriter Salka Viertel.

He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1941. During the Second World War he served with the United States Marine Corps and the Office of Strategic Services. Viertel wrote screenplays including *Saboteur* (1942), *Decision Before Dawn* (1951), *The Old Man and the Sea* (1958) and an uncredited contribution to *The African Queen* (1951). His novel *White Hunter, Black Heart* (1953) was adapted into a film in 1990.

He died in Marbella, Spain, on 4 November 2007.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Decision Before Dawn* (1951), Fi1m 79, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/decision-before-dawn.md)

## Complete filmography (11)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Well* (2005), Actor
- *White Hunter, Black Heart* (1990), Screenplay, Novel
- *Five Miles to Midnight* (1962), Adaptation, Screenplay
- *The Old Man and the Sea* (1958), Screenplay
- *The Sun Also Rises* (1957), Screenplay
- *Beat the Devil* (1953), as Additional Writing
- *Decision Before Dawn* (1951), Screenplay — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/decision-before-dawn.md)
- *Roughshod* (1949), Story
- *We Were Strangers* (1949), Screenplay
- *The Hard Way* (1943), Screenplay
- *Saboteur* (1942), Screenplay

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/peter-viertel