Noel Behn

Who was Noel Behn?

Noel Behn was an American novelist, screenwriter and theatrical producer. His first novel, The Kremlin Letter, drawn from his work in the US Army's Counterintelligence Corps, was made into a film by John Huston in 1970. Behn's non-fiction The Big Stick-Up at Brink's was adapted into a 1978 movie starring Peter Falk and Peter Boyle. His controversial book Lindbergh: The Crime delved into the Lindbergh kidnapping, claiming that the baby had died in a family accident, and the kidnapping was faked. Behn was influential in the development of Off Broadway theatre in New York and he was producing director of the Cherry Lane Theater throughout the 1950s and 60s. Beginning in the late 1960s, owing to the happenstance of having offices in the same building on 57th Street in New York City, Behn began longstanding creative friendships with screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, choreographer Bob Fosse and playwright Herb Gardner. He also wrote seven episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street between 1993 and 1997.

The second episode of the third season of the prison drama Oz was dedicated to his memory.