Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He began his career as an actor with the Group Theatre, a New York company in which he was a founding member. He shortly turned to writing, and his first play, Waiting For Lefty, launched him as the most celebrated American playwright of the 1930's (Longacre Theatre).

Odets' Broadway productions introduced theater audiences to subject matter and language that had never before been heard on the American stage. This work deeply influenced generations of American playwrights to follow. Among Odets' other best-known plays are Awake and Sing!, Golden Boy, Rocket to the Moon, Clash by Night, and The Flowering Peach (Belasco Theatre), Paradise Lost (Longacre Theatre), The Big Knife (National Theatre), and The Country Girl (Lyceum Theatre).

Screenplay credits include The General Died at Dawn, None but the Lonely Heart, Humoresque, The Sweet Smell of Success, and Story on Page One.