Edwin Harvey Blum; ‘Stalag 17’ Screenwriter

Edwin Harvey Blum, 89, screenwriter whose more than 15 feature films included “Stalag 17.” The 1952 film, which Blum co-authored with its director, Billy Wilder, was nominated for an Academy Award. Blum’s other scripts included “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” starring Basil Rathbone, “The Canterville Ghost” featuring Charles Laughton and Margaret O’Brien and “Down to Earth” with Rita Hayworth. Blum also wrote for television, including several scripts for the hit series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E,” “77 Sunset Strip” and “Hawaii Five-0.” A founding member of the Writer’s Guild of America, Blum won a Ford Foundation Prize for his off-Broadway play “The Saving Grace.” Born in Atlantic City, N.J. Blum grew up in San Francisco and moved to Los Angeles in 1933 to become a writer. He was an active Democrat who managed congressional campaigns and wrote anecdotes and speeches for presidential contenders Adlai Stevenson and Hubert H. Humphrey. Blum and his wife of 65 years, Beatriz, hosted historical house tours in their antique-filled 1913 Craftsman home. On Tuesday in Santa Monica of pneumonia.