Edmund H. North was a screenwriter.
Edmund Hall North ( March 12 , 1911 -- August 28 , 1990 ) , was an American screenwriter who shared an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Francis Ford Coppola in 1970 for their script for Patton . North wrote the screenplay for the 1951 science-fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still and is credited for creating the famous line from the film , `` Klaatu barada nikto '' . Only the Valiant . The screenplay was written by Edmund H. North and Harry Brown , based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Charles Marquis Warren .