Before signing on to write radio shows for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, Koch had several plays produced under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project. His best-known work for Welles was the notorious 1938 adaptation of "The War of the Worlds". With Warner Bros. from 1940, he wrote several outstanding films, notably "The Letter" (1940), "Sergeant York" (1941) and "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948), as well as collaborating with the Epstein brothers on the romantic classic "Casablanca" (1942) to which he reputedly brought a political edge by beefing up Rick's political past and romantic penchant for lost causes like fighting on the Loyalists' side in the Spanish Civil War.Following his blacklisting in 1950, Koch used the pseudonym Peter Howard to write the British-produced "Finger of Guilt" (1956), directed by fellow exile Joseph Losey under the pseudonym Joseph Walton.
Koch retired to Woodstock, NY where he remained actively involved in local theatre, writing and producing plays. He died of pneumonia at age 93 in August 1995. The following December, Koch's Oscar for "Casablanca" was sold at auction by Christie's for $184,000.
Profession(s):
screenwriter, playwright, radio writer, author, lawyer
Sometimes Credited As:
Peter Howard
Family
daughter:Karyl Koch Trainor (mother, Lucie van Tuyl; survived him)
son:Peter Koch (mother, Anne Green; survived him)
wife:Anne Green (married in 1941; mother of Peter; survived him)
wife:Lucie van Tuyl (mother of Karyl; divorced)
Education
St Stephen's College Annandale-on-Hudson, New York BA 1922
Columbia University Law School New York, New York LLB 1925
Writers Guild of America "Casablanca" 2006
Oscar Best Screenplay "Casablanca" 1943
1951 Blacklisted in Hollywood during the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of supposed Communist sympathizers
1940 - 1950 Worked as screenwriter in Hollywood
1938 Dramatized Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast for Mercury Theater of the Air
1929 Wrote first comedy to be produced on Broadway, "Great Scott!"
Moved to Europe and wrote under the pseudonym Peter Howard until the early 1960s