Borden Chase

Who was Borden Chase?

Borden Chase was an American writer.

Born Frank Fowler, he went through an assortment of jobs, including driving for gangster Frankie Yale and working as a sandhog on the construction of New York's Holland Tunnel, before turning to writing, first short stories and novels, and later, screenplays. When 20th Century Fox produced Under Pressure, his screen adaptation of his novel, Sandhog, he moved to Hollywood and changed his name to Borden Chase, allegedly getting his nominal inspiration from Borden Milk and Chase Manhattan Bank.

Chase provided the story for Anthony Mann's first film, Dr. Broadway, but his screenplays for the director's 1950s westerns, Winchester '73, Bend of the River and The Far Country, along with his Academy Award nomination for Howard Hawks' seminal Red River, were his crowning achievements.

Chase was an active member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, an anti-Communist group which was active in Hollywood during the years of the Hollywood blacklist.

His daughter Barrie Chase is a dancer and actress, and his son Frank Chase was an actor and screenwriter.