Irving Fiske
Irving Fiske (1908–1990), born Irving Louis Fishman, was a playwright, inventor, freelance writer, and speaker.
He was the plaintiff in a law suit filed initially against Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock in May 1947.
Fiske claimed that Hitchcock's plans to film a modern-language adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", with Grant in the starring role, infringed upon his work "Hamlet in Modern English", which was first published in 1941. The law suit sought damages of $1,250,000.
By the time the case went to court in October 1954, Grant's name had been dropped from the suit and the damages dropped to $750,000.
After 11 days of testimony, Judge William Bondy halted the trial and directed the jury to find the case not proven. A few month later, Bondy ordered Fiske to pay $5,000 to Hitchcock to cover part of the director's legal costs.
