Allen Rivkin

{{short description|American screenwriter}}

Allen Rivkin (20 November 1903 – 17 February 1990) was an American screenwriter.

Rivkin was an advertising copy writer, who went to Hollywood and joined the RKO Pictures publicity department. He formed a film writing team with P. J. Wolfson, who got a writer’s contract on the strength of "Bodies Are Dust". They started at Universal Pictures the same day. Through a luncheon conversation that day, they decided to collaborate on a story. In less than two years the pair wrote ten screen plays. They later wrote for the B. P. Schulberg company at Paramount Pictures.{{cite news |title=In Hollywood |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SPNP19321229.2.155&srpos=2&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22The+Devil+is+Driving%22-ARTICLE------1 |access-date=5 April 2022 |work=San Pedro News Pilot |date=29 December 1932 |location=San Pedro, CA |page=6 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection |quote= Volume 5, Number 256}}

He was one of the co-founders of the Screenwriters Guild, later the Writers Guild of America.[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/20/obituaries/allen-rivkin-86-dies-writer-of-screenplays.html "Allen Rivkin, 86, Dies; Writer of Screenplays", NY Times February 20, 1990] accessed 8 June 2014 He wrote several of his scripts with his wife, Laura Kerr.