At the Academy Awards in 1957, a writer named Robert Rich won Best Motion Picture Story for The Brave One. When the winner failed to appear to collect his statue, Writers Guild vice president Jesse Lasky Jr. accepted it, explaining that his "good friend" Mr. Rich was attending the birth of his first child.

When the press began investigating the mystery man, Writers Guild officials admitted that they had no record of a Robert Rich. The Academy retrieved and kept the Oscar until 1976, when Academy president Walter Mirisch presented the award to the rightful winner: Dalton Trumbo, who had used the Robert Rich pseudonym during the Hollywood blacklist.