Mickey Knox
American actor and translator (1921–2013) blacklisted in the early 1950s; one of Mailer's closest personal friends from 1951 until his death. Their June 1951 trip to Palm Springs provided the setting for The Deer Park; Knox later co-starred in Mailer's 1967 Deer Park stage production at Theatre DeLys, appeared in the Mailer films Wild 90 (1968) and Beyond the Law (1968), and translated Italian film dialogue into English from the late 1950s onward (including dubbing for Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns).
In June 1951 Mailer travels with Knox to Palm Springs, California — the setting that becomes the “Desert D’Or” of The Deer Park. Knox is later a cast member of Mailer’s 1967 Theatre DeLys production of the Deer Park play, alongside Mailer’s wife Beverly Bentley and ex-wife Adele Morales.
Knox spent the 1950s and much of the 1960s living and working in Italy after his Hollywood career was curtailed by the blacklist; he translated and supervised the English-language dubs for Sergio Leone’s westerns and other Italian features.