I could have had class. I could have been a contender.

Schulberg wrote the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd starring newcomer Andy Griffith in which an obscure country singer rises to fame and becomes extraordinarily manipulative to preserve his success and power. P. His niece Sandra Schulberg was an executive producer of the Academy Award nominated film Quills among other movies.

He was known for his 1941 novel What Makes Sammy Run? his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront and his 1957 screenplay for A Face in the Crowd.