John E. Rudder

John E. Rudder (born 1925) became the first black Marine officer commissioned in the regular United States Marine Corps, in 1948 (though Frederick C. Branch became an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1946).

He was born in Paducah, Kentucky. After serving as an enlisted Marine in World War II, he graduated from the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps. On May 28, 1948, he received his commission as a 2nd lieutenant, and entered the Marine Corps Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, on August 25. He resigned in 1949. Though he experienced discrimination at Quantico, he stated his departure was for personal reasons, and the matter was handled quietly.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), however, was skeptical and put him under long-term surveillance as a suspected communist, eventually accumulating eight volumes of material on the Rudder family by 1967. Settling in Washington, D.C., John Rudder - a Quaker - and his wife Doris became anti-war and anti-discrimination activists. The FBI caused trouble for their daughter Miriam many years later. As told to Morley Safer on the 60 Minutes segment "'Sins' of the Fathers ...", which aired on March 1, 1981, she was working as a file clerk for the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was looking into the murders of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. In order for the chairman to obtain the documents he wanted, all committee employees had to get a security clearance. Miriam Rudder claimed she was denied one due to the FBI's suspicions about her parents.

John Edathattil

John E (born 30 December 1958) is an Indian screenwriter and filmmaker. John E aka Sab John has penned scripts for some very critically acclaimed films in Malayalam and Tamil. Presently a resident of Chennai, India, John renders his guidance to aspiring script writers.

Career

John was born in Allepey, in the southern Indian state of Kerala to Simon Antony and Marykutty Antony. Though graduated in commerce, his accounting career did not last long. Very early in his career he discovered his interest in screenwriting and authored the script for the notable Malayalam film Chanakyan, a Kamal Haasan starrer.

During a professional screenwriting career spanning over 2 decades, John has written about 30 filmed screenplays. To name a few of his very successful films are: Gunaa, Vyooham, Gandhari, Soorya Manasam, Highway, Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, Mayilpeelikkavu, Priyam, Kuruthipunal and Chanakyan. Gunaa starring Kamal Haasan is about a mentally affected person's unadulterated love for a fictitious character named Abirami. The film was not only successful commercially, but also had an excellent blend of Kamal's acting, Ilayaraja's music and John's screenplay. It surely became a milestone project for everyone involved.