After three years in the Army, he began writing scripts for television's Golden Age when high-quality TV dramas were in demand. His credits included "Lux Video Theatre," "Studio One," "Alcoa Goodyear Theater," and "Playhouse 90."
Mann was a struggling television writer in the 1950s when he became fixated on the postwar Nuremberg trials that brought to justice the top surviving leaders of the Nazi regime. His "Judgment at Nuremberg" had become a successful drama on television, and against all advice, he was determined to convert it into his first movie script. "A lot of people didn't want it done," he commented in a 1994 interview. "People wanted to sweep the issue under the rug." Mann persisted, and producer-director Stanley Kramer made the film in 1961. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards® and provided Mann with an Oscar® for Adapted Screenplay. Another of his early film scripts (A CHILD IS WAITING, 1963) was based on his own successful TV play.
Mann also won multiple Emmys®, including one in 1973 for "The Marcus-Nelson Murders," which created a maverick New York police detective named Theo Kojak. The film, starring Telly Savalas, was spun off into the TV series "Kojak," which ran until 1978. After creating "Kojak," he wrote and directed the Emmy-nominated miniseries "King," a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. Mann shared an Emmy Award as co-executive producer and co-writer of the cable TV movie, "Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story" (1989) with Ben Kingsley in the title role.
Other notable screenwriting credits include PORT OF ESCAPE (1956), SHIP OF FOOLS (1965), THE DETECTIVE (1968), REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER (1975), and WAR AND LOVE (1985). From 1985 until his death, he wrote exclusively for television.
Writing (Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) 1961: JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
Nominated for Writing (Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) 1965: SHIP OF FOOLS
2 nominations, 1 Award