2008 Award Recipient

A Writers Guild member since 1952, Mankiewicz served as a member of the WGAW's Board of Directors from 1993-2001, as well as from 2003-2005. For many years, he has played an active role in Guild affairs, participating in many committees, including: Constitutional Review (1989-1993), Ad Hoc BBS Advisory (1991), Awards (1996-1999), Contract Adjustment Negotiating (1997), Pre-'60s Residuals (1997-1999), Screen/TV Credits (1997), CAC Renegotiating (1998), Waiver (1999-2005), and Committee Advisory Panel/CAP (2003-2005), among other WGAW efforts.

Two-time Emmy Award nominee Mankiewicz has carved out a decades-long career as a writer for both television and screen, writing or co-writing pilots for the series Ironside, Marcus Welby, M.D., Sarge, On Trial, One Step Beyond, Lanigan's Rabbi, and Rosetti & Ryan. He has also penned dozens of episodes of popular TV series, including Hart to Hart, MacGyver, Simon & Simon, McMillan & Wife, Rosetti & Ryan (which he co-created and shared a 1978 Edgar Allan Poe Award with co-writer Gordon Cotler for Best Television Mystery Feature or Miniseries for pilot episode “Men Who Love Women.”), Marcus Welby, M.D., Ironside, Star Trek, One Step Beyond, On Trial, and six episodes of Profiles in Courage (with opening and closing narration by President John F. Kennedy), as well as plays from live TV's “Golden Age,” including All the King's Men (1958), based on Robert Penn Warren's novel and Robert Rossen's screenplay, The Last Tycoon (1957), from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, and others for Playhouse 90, Studio One, Armstrong Circle Theater, The U.S. Steel Hour, Philco Playhouse, and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. He served as story editor - often as executive story consultant or supervising producer - on TV series including Hart to Hart, Adderly, Housecalls, Crazy Like A Fox, Lanigan's Rabbi, and McMillan & Wife.

On the big screen, Mankiewicz's feature writing credits include: The Chapman Report (1962, screenplay by Wyatt Cooper & Don Mankiewicz, adaptation by Grant Stuart & Eugene Allen, based on the novel by Irving Wallace), I Want to Live (1958, screenplay by Nelson Gidding and Mankiewicz, based on articles by Ed Montgomery), for which he shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, as well as a Writers Guild Award nomination for Best Written American Drama, Trial (1955, screenplay by Mankiewicz, based on his novel), Fast Company (1952, screenplay by William Roberts, adaptation by Mankiewicz, based on the short story “Rocky's Rose” by Eustace Cockrell), House of Numbers (1957, screenplay by Russell Rouse and Mankiewicz, based on the novel by Jack Finney), and The Black Bird (1975, screenplay by David Giler, story by Don M. Mankiewicz and Gordon Cotler).

On the literary front, Mankiewicz has published three novels, including Trial, which won the 1958 Harper Prize, as well as fiction and non-fiction in The New Yorker, and fiction in Saturday Evening Post and Colliers, among other publications.

In the '60s, he served on the Board of Directors of the New York branch of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and, briefly, as President of the Producers Guild of America during the '90s. A lifelong Democrat active in the political arena, Mankiewicz served as Vice Chairman of the Nassau County (N.Y.) Democratic Committee, was the Democratic nominee for the N.Y. State Assembly in 1952, and was elected as a delegate to Democratic National Conventions in '60 (for John F. Kennedy), '68 (for Robert F. Kennedy), and '72 (for George McGovern).

As the son of Herman J. Mankiewicz, nephew of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and cousin of Tom and Chris Mankiewicz, Don Mankiewicz was born into a family of writers - and is the father of writer John Mankiewicz, brother of journalist Frank Mankiewicz, uncle of writer Tim Davis, and husband of WGAW member Emeritus Carol Mankiewicz.

The Morgan Cox Award honors that WGAW member(s) whose vital ideas, continuing efforts, and personal sacrifice best exemplify the ideal of service to the Guild. Previous recipients include Fay Kanin, Mel Shavelson, Irma Kalish, George Kirgo, Del Reisman, James Buchanan, Hal Kanter, and most recently, Frank Pierson. The late Morgan B. Cox devoted much of his professional life to serving the Writers Guild, with a focus on ensuring that television writers were included under the jurisdiction of the Writers Guild.