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Harvey Matusow was born in New York City on 3rd October, 1926. A member of the American Communist Party Matusow worked as a journalist before becoming an actor after the Second World War and appeared in left-wing plays, Waiting for Lefty (Clifford Odets) and The Cradle Will Rock (Marc Blizstein). He also appeared on the radio.

Matusow was an early victim of McCarthyism and in an attempt to stop himself being blacklisted, he agreed to go before the House of Un-American Activities and give evidence against former left-wing colleagues. He also became editor of the right-wing magazine Counterattack and worked as an aide to Joseph McCarthy.

Matusow eventually felt remorse for what he had done and in 1955 A published his book False Witness. In the book Matusow claimed he was a FBI agent who had been paid to lie about members of the Communist Party. As a result of this confession he was found guilty of perjury and jailed for nearly three years. However, his claims that Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn had encouraged him to lie helped to undermine McCarthyism.

On his release from prison Matusow was himself blacklisted. He moved to England and in 1966 established the London Film Makers Cooperative. He also edited The American and wrote for the Sunday Times, International Times and Oz.

Matusow returned to the United States in the 1990s to run the the state's first Public Access TV program. Harvey Matusow died on 17th January, 2002.

 

 

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