Peter Viertel

Career overview

Peter Viertel was born in Dresden, Germany, on November 16, 1920, to writer and actress Salka Viertel and writer Berthold Viertel. His parents were part of the European intelligentsia and refugees from Adolf Hitler's Europe. In 1928, when Viertel was eight years old, his family moved to Santa Monica, California, where he grew up alongside his brothers, Hans and Thomas. He later became a naturalized United States citizen and attended Dartmouth College.

Viertel was a World War II veteran and a writer whose first novel was published to glowing reviews when he was only 18 years old. Over the course of his career, he accumulated fifteen known credits in writing and is associated with work on the film Saboteur. He also maintained a close friendship with director John Huston. Viertel drew upon his experiences during the making of the film African Queen to write his well-known novel White Hunter, Black Heart, which was published in 1953 and initially released in Germany under the title Mann im Dschungel.

Viertel passed away on November 4, 2007, at the age of 86. His parents both maintained lifelong careers in film, theatre, and literature, establishing a deep family connection to the arts that influenced Viertel throughout his life and literary career.