Milton Sperling, 76; Oscar Nominee for ‘Court Martial of Billy Mitchell’

Funeral services for Milton Sperling, who was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay for “The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell,” were held Monday at Mt. Sinai Chapel in the Hollywood Hills.

Sperling, a founding member of the Writers Guild of America, died Friday after a long illness. He was 76.

Sperling’s career spanned half a century as a screenwriter and producer after starting out as a messenger boy and shipping clerk at Paramount’s old studios on Long Island.

In 1932, he moved from New York to Hollywood, where he worked as a secretary to moguls Darryl F. Zanuck and Hal B. Wallis at 20th Century Fox.

He became a screenwriter, gaining his first credit--for “Sing Baby Sing”--at the age of 24. He also wrote “The Great Profile (1940), and co-wrote several others, including “The Bramble Bush”(1960) and “Battle of the Bulge” (1965).

His producing credits included “South of St. Louis” (1949), “The Enforcer” (1951), “Distant Drums” (1951), “Marjorie Morningstar” (1958) and “Captain Apache” (1971) as well as “The Bramble Bush” and “Battle of the Bulge.”

Sperling served as a captain in the Marine Corps during World War II, teaching documentary film-making during combat to a special team in the Pacific Theater.

After the war, Sperling returned to Hollywood and formed an independent production company, United States Pictures.

“Did you ever hear of the word ‘independent’?” he asked at the time. “It means exactly what it says. After 39 months of clicking my heels, snapping to attention, saluting and saying, ‘Yes, sir!’ I love the sound of that two-letter word, ‘No!’ ”

He is survived by his wife, Margit, three daughters and a son.