After the failure of a play called Five Alarm Waltz in 1941, Roman Bohnen and [his daughter] Marina moved to Hollywood. His first film was the Vogues of 1938 (1937). By 1941, he was working almost exclusively in film. Among his better-known roles are Candy in Of Mice and Men (1939) and Pat Derry in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). He also played Durand Laxart, Joan’s uncle, who takes her to see the Dauphin of France, in the Ingrid Bergman film, Joan of Arc (1948). He played the Old Man in Jules Dassin’s short film The Tell-Tale Heart (1941) Roman Bohnen was cast as President Harry Truman in The Beginning or the End, an MGM docu-drama about the atomic bomb. After a private screening in late 1946, Truman let it be known that he disapproved of his portrayal regarding the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. On December 2, 1946, Bohnen wrote Truman that he should portray himself. On December 12, Truman responded to Bohnen’s letter, but declined the chance to portray himself, and said that he was “sure you (Bohnen) will do the part creditably”. Ultimately, the scenes were re-shot with actor Art Baker re-cast as Truman.

With other former Group Theatre actors, Roman Bohnen was co-founder of the politically active Actors’ Laboratory Theatre. During World War II, the Actors’ Lab performed for over one million soldiers. Like many of his Group cohorts, Bohnen was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Eventually, he was blacklisted, creating financial, social and artistic stress. The Bohnens had a daughter in 1936, Marina, nicknamed “Button” by her father. Roman Bohnen was working on the Actors’ Lab production of A Distant Isle when he collapsed and died of a heart attack during the play’s intermission in Hollywood, California in 1949.