[msb-alumni] William Goldman, Award-Winning Screen Writer, Dies at 87
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2018 11:33:06 -0500
BlankWilliam Goldman, Award-Winning Screen Writer, Dies at 87
NEW YORK William Goldman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter and Hollywood wise man
who won Academy Awards for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All
the President's Men" and summed up the mystery of making a box office hit by
declaring "Nobody knows anything," has died. He was 87. Goldman's daughter
Jenny said her father died early Friday in New York due to complications from
colon cancer and pneumonia. "So much of what's he's written can express who
he was and what he was about," she said, adding that the past few weeks, while
Goldman was ailing, revealed just how many people considered him family.
Goldman, who also converted his novels "Marathon Man," "Magic," "The Princess
Bride" and "Heat" into screenplays, clearly knew more than most about what
the audience wanted. He was not only a successful film writer but a top script
doctor, the industry title for an uncredited writer brought in to improve
or "punch up" weak screenplays. Goldman also made political history by coining
the phrase "follow the money" in his script for "All the President's Men,"
adapted from the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein on the Watergate political scandal. The film starred Robert Redford
as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein. Standing in the shadows, Hal
Holbrook was the mystery man code-named Deep Throat who helped the reporters
pursue the evidence. His advice, "Follow the money," became so widely quoted
that few people realized it was never said during the actual scandal. A
confirmed
New Yorker, Goldman declined to work in Hollywood. Instead, he would fly to Los
Angeles for two-day conferences with directors and producers, then return
home to fashion a script, which he did with amazing speed. In his 1985 book,
"Adventures in the Screen Trade," he expressed disdain for an industry that
elaborately produced and tested a movie, only to see it dismissed by the public
during its first weekend in theaters. "Nobody knows anything," he remarked.
Screenwriter and filmmaker Aaron Sorkin called Goldman a mentor. "He was the
dean of American screenwriters and generations of filmmakers will continue
to walk in the footprints he laid," Sorkin said in a statement. "He wrote so
many unforgettable movies, so many thunderous novels and works of non-fiction,
and while I'll always wish he'd written one more, I'll always be grateful for
what he's left us. Goldman launched his writing career after receiving a
master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1956. Weary of academia,
he declined the chance to earn a Ph.D., choosing instead to write the novel
"The Temple of Gold" in 10 days. Knopf agreed to publish it. "If the book had
not been taken," he told an interviewer, "I would have gone into advertising
or something. Instead, he wrote other novels, including "Soldier in the Rain,"
which became a movie starring Steve McQueen. Goldman also co-authored a
play and a musical with his older brother, James, but both failed on Broadway.
James Goldman would later write the historical play "The Lion in Winter,"
which he converted to film, winning the 1968 Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
William Goldman had come to screenwriting by accident after actor Cliff
Robertson read one of his books, "No Way to Treat a Lady," and thought it was a
film treatment. After he hired the young writer to fashion a script from
a short story, Goldman rushed out to buy a book on screen writing. Robertson
rejected the script but found Goldman a job working on a screenplay for a
British thriller. After that he adapted his novel "Harper" for a 1966 film
starring Paul Newman as a private eye. He broke through in 1969 with the
blockbuster
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," starring Newman and Redford. Based on the
exploits of the real-life "Hole in the Wall" gang of bank robbers, the
movie began a long association with Redford, who also appeared in "The Hot
Rock," "The Great Waldo Pepper" and "Indecent Proposal. Other notable Goldman
films included "The Stepford Wives," "A Bridge Too Far" and "Misery. The
latter,
adapted from a Stephen King suspense novel, won the 1990 Oscar for Kathy
Bates as lead actress. In 1961 Goldman married Ilene Jones, a photographer, and
they had two daughters, Jenny and Susanna. The couple divorced in 1991.
Born in Chicago on Aug. 12, 1931, Goldman grew up in the suburb of Highland
Park. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1952 and served two years in the
Army. Despite all his success as a screenwriter, Goldman always considered
himself a novelist and didn't rate his scripts as great artistic achievements.
"A screenplay is a piece of carpentry," he once said. "And except in the case
of
Ingmar Bergman, it's not an art, it's a craft."
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