Adrian Scott was a screenwriter, playwright, and motion picture producer. He was born in Arlington, New Jersey, and graduated from Amherst College in 1934. He worked as a film critic and associate editor of Stage magazine from 1936 through 1938. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1939 where he wrote screenplays for MGM. In 1943 he joined RKO as a producer. Some of the films he produced for RKO were Murder My Sweet, Cornered, So Well Remembered, and Crossfire.

In 1947 Mr. Scott was subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities to answer questions about Communist influence on the motion picture industry. He was one of the "Hollywood Ten" who refused to answer questions put to them by the committee, citing the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as a guarantee of their right to free expression of ideas. He was convicted of Contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and jailed for one year at the federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky. Upon his conviction RKO fired him, claiming violation of the morals clause in his contract. He was blacklisted and thus officially unemployable in the United States. He was also denied a passport to leave the country.

The hearings, along with the loyalty oath required of every government employee, combined to create an atmosphere of intimidation and political hysteria. The Committee pressured the entertainment industry into firing anyone who would not sign a loyalty oath or who were rumored to have been a Communist.

Film companies in Europe were very supportive of those who were blacklisted and provided work for them when possible. In 1958 Mr. Scott managed to obtain a passport and moved to England where he produced motion pictures. In the late 1960s the blacklist was slowly weakening, and he could again write and produce films under his own name. He returned to the United States to live in 1968.His last major work was The Great Man's Whiskers, which was aired on NBC-TV in 1973. Among his best known films are Parson of Panamint, Mr. Lucky, Murder My Sweet, Cornered, So Well Remembered, Deadline at Dawn, and Crossfire.