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Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).
Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).
He is also the co-writer on the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In 2015, Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Writing, Original Screenplay category.- Writer
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Joseph Wambaugh was born on 22 January 1937 in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Black Marble (1980), Police Story (1973) and The New Centurions (1972). He has been married to Lawana Dee Allsup since 26 November 1955. They have three children.- Writer
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Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in school. He planned on becoming a marine biologist specializing in dolphins until a diving accident at age 17 which rendered him unable to dive any longer. He moved back to Paris, where he was born, and only at age 18 did he first have an urban life or television. He realized that film was a medium which he could combine all his interests in various arts together, so he began taking odd jobs on various films. He moved to America for three years, then returned to France and formed Les Films de Loups - his own production company, which later changed its name to Les Films de Dauphins. He is now able to dive again.- Gordon McDonell was born on 30 October 1905 in Reigate, Surrey, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Shadow of a Doubt (1943), They Won't Believe Me (1947) and Step Down to Terror (1958). He died on 16 December 1995 in Green Valley, Arizona, USA.
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As a child Williamson was a fond fan of movies, especially those of Steven Spielberg. After high school, Williamson went to college for a future in acting. Though he landed very small parts on T.V. shows and movies, nothing had happened. Williamson moved out to L.A in 1990 in hopes it would aid his career, but nothing had come up. While in L.A. he took up a class at UCLA on screenwriting. There he wrote his first script, "Teaching Ms. Tingle" (titled at this time Killing Ms. Tingle). After the movie was complete, Williamson ended up on the streets again looking for work. One night, while house-sitting for a friend, Williamson watched a special on the Gainesville Ripper. This gave birth to what would soon be Scream. After this, he went out to Palm Springs for three days and wrote the script. After the grueling few months of production hell, Scream was released to the public on December 20th, 1996. This spiraled four sequels and a new chapter in horror film history forever.- Writer
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Florian Zeller is a French writer and director. He is, according to the Times, "the most exciting playwright of our time." He has written more than 10 plays, which have been staged in more than 45 countries. His black-comedy play "The Father" is one of the outstanding hits of recent years. It has won several awards in Paris, London, and New York. "The Father" is his first film as a director.- Thomas Savage is known for The Power of the Dog (2021).
- Pierre Boileau was born on 28 April 1906 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Vertigo (1958), Diabolique (1955) and Eyes Without a Face (1960). He died on 16 January 1989 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
- Thomas Narcejac was born on 3 July 1908 in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France. He was a writer, known for Vertigo (1958), Diabolique (1955) and Eyes Without a Face (1960). He died on 9 June 1998 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
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Jean-Paul Sartre likens Jean Genet to a saint for a very particular reason, a reason that is apparent in the title of the biography, but which does not translate in the English title--"Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr"--because meaning and referentiality are lost. The French title is "Saint Genet: Comédien et Martyr"; the phrase "Saint Genet" evokes the memory of St. Genestus (known in France as Genest or Genêt), the third-century Roman actor and martyr and the patron saint of actors. Also, the word "comédien" (meaning "actor", not necessarily "comic") is used in everyday language to designate a person who shams or "puts on an act". Thus, the title itself gives one more of an impression of the author in question than it would seem on the surface. Incidentally, Genet was saved from further imprisonment by the intervention of Jean Cocteau, the famous writer, filmmaker and artist who, on the basis of Genet's first poem, declared him a literary genius. Genet, while in prison, would steal paper from the prison workshop, on which he would then write his poems and stories. He was also a playwright. There is a second biography of him know written by the famous gay novelist, Edmund White. Genet was himself gay, which helps to explain why many of his works were so controversial in the US--and none of which were controversial in Europe for that reason.- Writer
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Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause problems, so he emigrated to Paris, then the US. Although he spoke no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a fast learner and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with whom he shared an apartment), he was able to break into American films. His partnership with Charles Brackett started in 1938 and the team was responsible for writing some of Hollywood's classic comedies, including Ninotchka (1939) and Ball of Fire (1941). The partnership expanded into a producer-director one in 1942, with Brackett producing and the two turned out such classics as Five Graves to Cairo (1943), The Lost Weekend (1945) (Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Oscars for Best Screenplay), after which the partnership dissolved. (Wilder had already made one film, Double Indemnity (1944) without Brackett, as the latter had refused to work on a film he felt dealt with such disreputable characters.) Wilder's subsequent self-produced films would become more caustic and cynical, notably Ace in the Hole (1951), though he also produced such sublime comedies as Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) (which won him Best Picture and Director Oscars). He retired in 1981.- Writer
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Julian Fellowes was born on 17 August 1949 in Cairo, Egypt. He is a writer and producer, known for Gosford Park (2001), Downton Abbey (2010) and From Time to Time (2009). He has been married to Emma Joy Kitchener-Fellowes since 28 April 1990. They have one child.- Writer
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The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study filmmaking because he didn't have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco's government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The "premieres" of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture. In few years, Almodóvar became a star of "La Movida", the pop cultural movement of late 70s Madrid. His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release. In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company: El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world, making his films very popular in many countries.- Producer
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Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990). He went on to write and produce Regarding Henry (1991) and Forever Young (1992). He also co-wrote Gone Fishin' (1997) with Mazursky. Along with other Sarah Lawrence alumni, he experimented with computer animation and was contracted to develop pre-production animation for Shrek (2001).
Abrams worked on the screenplay for Armageddon (1998) and co-created (as well as composing the opening theme of) Felicity (1998), which ran for four seasons. He founded the production company Bad Robot in 2001 with Bryan Burk. He created and executive-produced Alias (2001) and Lost (2004), composing the theme music for both, and co-writing episodes of "Lost". He also co-wrote and produced thriller Joy Ride (2001). He made his feature directing debut with Mission: Impossible III (2006), reinvigorating the series. He produced the hit mystery film Cloverfield (2008) and co-created Fringe (2008).
He directed the Star Trek (2009) reboot, proving successful with fans and newcomers to the franchise. He next directed Super 8 (2011), co-produced by Steven Spielberg and produced Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). He returned to direct the follow-up to his reboot, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Disney and Lucasfilm announced J.J. as their choice for director of the first episode in the new 'Star Wars' trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). He initially resisted, as he didn't want to travel away from his family to London, but Kathleen Kennedy convinced him that his voice would be the best to reinvigorate this franchise, as he had done with two others before. He also produced Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) and Star Trek Beyond (2016), and executive-produced Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017). When it was announced that Colin Trevorrow would no longer direct Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), it was announced that J.J. would return to complete the trilogy he started.- Writer
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Jimmy McGovern was born in September 1949 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for The Street (2006), Cracker (1993) and Moving On (2009).- Actress
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Kathryn Stockett is known for The Help (2011), Pretty Ugly People (2008) and Old South, New South (2014). She was previously married to Keith Rogers.- Producer
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Simon Kelton is a UK/US based writer/producer and the founder of Inspirational Entertainment, which develops and produces incredible stories for film and TV which aim to inspire as much as they entertain.
From Guy Ritchie's upcoming YOUNG SHERLOCK with Amazon Prime to life-changing moments like EDDIE THE EAGLE's infamous 90m ski jump in the Calgary Winter Olympics or Gavin Maxwell's pioneering environmental work in his much-beloved book RING OF BRIGHT WATER, Inspirational Entertainment looks to bring thrilling, ambitious, uplifting and often true tales to the widest audience possible.
The company was founded by Simon and his wife Heather, a highly experienced film producer who worked for director Robert Zemeckis for twelve years, in order to create inspirational British stories with international appeal.
Simon and Heather began their careers in the entertainment business as a security guard and a catering assistant. They have come a long way since then and have been privileged to work with some of the best directors in the world like Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Guy Ritchie, Matthew Vaughn, John Stevenson, Ash Brannon and Dexter Fletcher, as well as some of the biggest movie stars like Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton.
A great lover of the mountains and snowsports, Simon executive produced Jeff Lowe's METANOIA, a remarkable true life story which won the Best Mountaineering Film at the Kendal Festival as well as 24 other awards around the world as far afield as New Zealand, Italy, Canada, Croatia and the US. Simon is developing a project about World Cup Skiing entitled 100 SECONDS.
Simon has written over 30 screenplays for US and UK production companies as well as having directors like Guy Ritchie, Michael Grandage, Nigel Cole, Andy Fickman, Ash Brannon, John Stevenson, Kirk Jones, James Honeyborne, and Declan Lowney attached to his projects. He has also performed as voice talent in movies such as POLAR EXPRESS, BEOWULF, MONSTER HOUSE and A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Simon was the first recipient of the prestigious BAFTA LA Scholarship for screenwriting at UCLA Film School and went on to Co-Chair BAFTA LA's Scholarship Committee helping build it into the most important and generous film school scholarship in the world.
Simon was awarded Master's degrees from Oxford, Stanford and UCLA, where he won the first BAFTA LA Scholarship, a Samuel Goldwyn Award, the Harmony Gold Award of Excellence, was a Finalist in the Disney Fellowship and twice a semi-finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship. He has also studied at Harvard Business School and INSEAD.- Actor
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Greg Sestero was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. With European parental influence, Greg speaks both French and English. He traveled extensively early on, and holds dual citizenship between France and the United States.
At 17 years old, Greg signed with a prominent San Francisco talent agency. The same year, he left for Milan and Paris to work for designers such as Giorgio Armani and Gian Franco Ferre. Greg returned focused on acting. He began studies at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He landed his first role at age 18, on the CBS hit show Nash Bridges (1996). This followed with a role in the Golden Globe nominated film, Patch Adams (1998) starring fellow San Francisco native, Robin Williams. Soon thereafter, Greg was signed by well-known Hollywood agent, Iris Burton, which prompted his move to Los Angeles.
Sestero starred in the notorious The Room (2003), which gained an international cult following as the best worst movie ever made.
in 2013, Sestero wrote a book entitled The Disaster Artist, chronicling his experience making the film and working with its enigmatic director Tommy Wiseau. The book went on to become a critically acclaimed bestseller. In February 2014, the book was optioned to made into a feature film by Hollywood superstars James Franco and Seth Rogen.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Sandeep Kewlani, an accomplished Indian film director and writer, has penned acclaimed works such as Skyforce, Runway34 and Bholaa. His directorial debut with Skyforce marked the beginning of a promising career. Moreover, he serves as the co-founder and owner of the production house GoodKarma Films.
Sandeep aspires to realize his dream of directing a majestic event-based historical war film, driven by his fervent desire to enrich the enchanting world of cinema, as he states "I have a lot to contribute to the magical silver screen."- Writer
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Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films: the crime thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), and the black comedy thriller Parasite (2019), all of which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea, with Parasite also being the highest-grossing South Korean film in history.
All of Bong's films have been South Korean productions, although both Snowpiercer and Okja (2017) are mostly in the English language. Two of his films have screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival-Okja in 2017 and Parasite in 2019; the latter earned the Palme d'Or, which was a first for a South Korean film. Parasite also became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award nominations, with Bong winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, making Parasite the first film not in English to win Best Picture. In 2017, Bong was included on Metacritic's list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. In 2020, Bong was included in Time's annual list of 100 Most Influential People and Bloomberg 50.- Actor
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Stephen Michael Shearer was born in Illinois to retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Robert Dean Sypult and Billie Melba Fuller, a Registered Nurse. He has two older sisters, and a younger brother. He was raised in Illinois, Michigan, and Arkansas.
At the age of 10 he began reading film biographies, his favorite author being Gerold Frank. At 11 he wrote his first screenplay Hellen and Ellen in the Wilderness and dreamt of becoming a film actor. As a child he appeared on local radio and appeared in numerous school plays to overcome his innate shyness.
As a teenager, he was assistant editor of high school paper, penning numerous columns. He was awarded a three-year honorary scholarship from Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri, and was a film director, public service coordinator, and host of an afternoon TV show "The Movies" for a local CBS-affiliate. At university he majored in vocal and instrumental music, minored in psychology performing proficiently on string bass, cello, concert tuba, French horn, baritone, piano, and percussion. His major was voice (tenor-baritone). He was drum major for the marching band, member of Kappa Kappa Psi, and did post-graduate work in theatre arts, where he performed in numerous plays and wrote/produced/directed the University's first film production Sylvia and Sally of the Sand Dunes. He graduated with a BSE in Music.
After college, and changing his name to Stephen Michael Shearer, he did live and print modeling extensively in Minneapolis, Tulsa, Dallas, and New York. He did extra and under-five work in numerous films and television shows such as Split Image (1982), Handgun (1982), The Cotton Club (1984), and various episodes of "Dallas" (1981-82), and "Central Park West" (1995). Over the years he starred in numerous community and off-Broadway theatrical productions, such as Luigi Januzzi's "The Appointment," which won the Samuel French Award in 1994. While employed in corporate America from 1988 until 2007, as head of diversity for a major corporation in Manhattan, he lost 11 colleagues in the collapse of Tower One of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Shifting gears, he began a career writing film history and biography. In his younger years he had film book and film reviews published in national publications, and had contributed research to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Library. His close friend, actress Patricia Neal was his muse, and his definitive biography "Patricia Neal - An Unquiet Life" (University Press of Kentucky, 2006) won popular critical reviews. Since then he has written two more biographies, "Beautiful - The Life of Hedy Lamarr" (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press-Macmillan, 2010) and "Gloria Swanson - The Ultimate Star" (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press-Macmillan, 2013), an unpublished novel "September - A Passion," numerous film history articles, and a series of "Legendary Las Vegas Headliners" for the Las Vegas Review Journal.
As a film historian he has appeared in numerous television and feature film documentaries, and as an actor he co-starred with Patricia Neal in her last film Flying By (2009).- Writer
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Meyer Levin was born on 7 October 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Compulsion (1959), The Illegals (1947) and My Father's House (1947). He was married to Tereska Torres and Mabel Hall Schamp. He died on 9 July 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel.- Writer
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Author, playwright and composer Ira Levin decided on a career of a writer at the age of 15. Educated at the elite Horace Mann school, he went on to two years at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, before transferring to New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English. He earned his degree in 1950. In 1953 he was drafted into the army. Based in Queens, New York, he wrote and produced training films for Uncle Sam before moving into television, penning scripts for such anthology series as Lights Out (1946) and The United States Steel Hour (1953). He made a bright theatre debut at the age of 25 with an adaptation of Mac Hyman's "No Time for Sergeants" (1955). He went on to write several plays, including the longest-running Broadway mystery to date, "Deathtrap" (1978), and several popular novels, including "A Kiss Before Dying", and other plays including "Critics Choice" and "Interlock" and the Broadway stage score and libretto for "Drat the Cat!". Joining ASCAP in 1965, he wrote the popular gospel song "He Touched Me" with his chief musical collaborator Milton Schafer.- Writer
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Ehren Kruger is an American film producer and screenwriter who is known for writing The Ring starring Naomi Watts and Daveigh Chase. He also wrote a majority of the Transformers sequels, Scream 3 & 4, Reindeer Games, The Ring Two, Blood & Chocolate, Dumbo, The Skeleton Key, The Brothers Grimm and Ghost in the Shell.- Writer
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Blake Edwards' stepfather's father J. Gordon Edwards was a silent screen director, and his stepfather Jack McEdward was a stage director and movie production manager. Blake acted in a number films, beginning with Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) and wrote a number of others, beginning with Panhandle (1948) and including six for director Richard Quine. He created the popular TV series Peter Gunn (1958), Mr. Lucky (1959) and Dante (1960). He directed a diverse body of films, from comedies to dramas to war films to westerns, including such pictures as Operation Petticoat (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Experiment in Terror (1962), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964). After The Great Race (1965) he began fighting with studios. In England he surfaced again with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), then went back to Hollywood and a real hit, 10 (1979). Victor/Victoria (1982) won him French and Italian awards for Best Foreign Film.- Writer
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Robert Nathan was from a well-known New York family. Among some noted relatives were: activist Maud Nathan and author Annie Nathan Meyer (his aunts), poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo (his cousins). His uncle was the founder of Barnard College. Early education was at private schools in the East and Switzerland. In 1912 he entered Harvard University (a classmate was important literary and arts exponent E.E. Cummings). On the side he became an accomplished cellist, a lightweight boxer, and captain of the fencing team as well as an editor of the Harvard Monthly. Through this medium his interest in literary pursuits first saw fruit with early short stories and poems. In 1915 he married for the first time during his junior year and later made the decision to drop out of school to take a job in advertising to support his new family. Still in advertising in 1919, Nathan produced his first novel - the semi-autobiographical work "Peter Kindred". The book failed as piece of serious literature, but he left the conventional job and began focusing his time on writing as his life's goal. He also briefly taught journalism at New York University. And his determination paid off. Into the 1920s he began receiving recognition both with the public and the literary community. One of the latter was F. Scott Fitzgerald who at one point picked Nathan as his favorite writer. By the mid-1930s Nathan had managed to produce some dozen novels, among them "The Fiddler in Barley" (1926) and "The Bishop's Wife" (1928). Then Hollywood called in the person of MGM movie mogul Louis B. Mayer who urged a screenwriter's contract on him, and he accepted, coming West. As it turned out he was not attuned to the movie industry pace, but Nathan was still completing novels, and filmdom fairly begged for his work. His "One More Spring" (1933) was the first novel of interest and was filmed with that title One More Spring (1935). By then the unique fabric of his writing was becoming known: facets of romance, mystery, the supernatural set in a fantasy frame - a pervading otherworldliness. The second novel filmed was Wake Up and Dream (1946) (from the novel "The Enchanted Voyage"). A Christmas comedy favorite is The Bishop's Wife (1947) with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven. This was remade again as The Preacher's Wife (1996). One of the best examples of his blending of dreamlike elements was his most successful novel "Portrait of Jennie" (1940). The film version of Portrait of Jennie (1948) was produced sparing no expense by David O. Selznick and starred his later wife Jennifer Jones and their friend, the sometimes underrated veteran leading man, Joseph Cotten. The fifth novel made into a film was The Color of Evening (1990). There were also some TV dramas based on his writings - a "Portrait of Jennie" once more included. The writing went on steadily. Nathan's early screen writing efforts are obscure, but his three official pieces came in the 1940s, and the best of them was co-writing The Clock (1945). Directed by young Vincente Minnelli, it starred Minnelli's future wife Judy Garland and was a highly satisfying romantic story of achieving an improbable and urgent goal in one day's time-certainly right up Nathan's alley. Nathan's serious writing occupied most of his time. In addition to movie work he wrote 39 novels, one work of non-fiction, 4 children's stories, and 10 collections of poetry. In later years he was known as "The Dean of Author's", and many prominent writers, including Irving Stone and Irving Wallace sought out his guidance. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters for fifty years. As his life slowed down (he completed his last novel in 1975), and he retired more from the literary world, he had the good fortune to marry (a happy marriage of fifteen years until his death) an ideal companion to supervise his peace of mind both at homes in Los Angeles and Cape Cod, the English born actress Anna Lee, who had come to Hollywood with her first husband director Robert Stevenson in 1939. Nathans legacy moves on. Another telling of "Portrait of Jennie" is being developed as a musical (2009). Nathan's comedy play "Juliet in Mantua" (the story line -- what if Romeo and Juliet faked their deaths and ran off to live happily ever after in Mantua - or did they?) is being made into a movie (2009). He is noted in some quarters as a master of satiric fantasy-but satiric is perhaps too quick a cut on the inner complexity of what he wanted to put into words. He had said of his writing life: "I have tried -- as far as I could -- to be a comforter in the world...not through what I know, but what I don't -- and cannot -- know. I have tried to suggest the mystery and the magic."- Producer
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Dennis Lehane was born on 4 August 1965 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The Drop (2014), Mystic River (2003) and Live by Night (2016). He was previously married to Dr. Angela Mililani (Lieb) Bernardo and Sheila Fort Lawn.- Writer
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Honoré de Balzac was a French writer whose works have been made into films, such as, Cousin Bette (1998) starring Jessica Lange, and television serials, such as Cousin Bette (1971), starring Margaret Tyzack and Helen Mirren.
He was born on March 20, 1799, in Tours, France. His father, Bernard Francois Balzac, was a government regional administrator who married a daughter of his boss. The family moved to Paris in 1815. There Balzac went to the Sorbonne, matriculated in jurisprudence and became a clerk for an attorney.
Balzac's efforts at publishing his early novels under a pseudonym and in his own publishing company failed, and he went into debt. His activity as a journalist brought recognition among intellectuals for his political and cultural reviews, which resonated with the mixed social expectations during the Restoration. However, with the 1830 fall of the Bourbon monarchy came the new, "bourgeous" (or capitalist) monarchy, a chimera doomed to fall in the 1848 revolutions that swept Europe. Such was the political background for Balzac's literary works.
Balzac created the idea of a serialized cross-genre web of stories and novels, linked together as a broad historic panorama of lives and events. This idea was implemented in his "La Comedie humane" ("The Human Comedy"). It included about 100 stories, novels and essays, some of them unfinished. Such a vast body of handwriting could not be possible without an obsession. His plans and plots grew constantly and often changed, just to include a new idea based on a fresh gossip. Altogether his works reflected on a mosaic of life in Paris, and France in general, from the 1820s to 1850.
"Les Chouans" (1829) was a prologue to the collection of Balsac's interconnected works, known as the Human Comedy; it really opened with "Scenes de la Vie Privee", six Scenes From a Private Life (1830-1832) and "La Peau de chagrin" (The Goat-skin 1831). Balzac was writing 14 to 18 hours a day and often through the night, constantly doping himself with countless cups of coffee. He draw upon ideas from the works of Walter Scott and William Shakespeare, as in 1835's "Le pere Goriot" ("Father Goriot"), a "King Lear" type of story set in 1820s Paris. He also created many of his own purely original plots and introduced over 2,000 characters through the books of the Human Comedy. The largest "stones" in his pyramid of fiction are "Eugene Grande" (1833), a thousand-page saga; "Les Illusions Perdues" ("Lost Illusions"); "Le cousin Pons" (1847), "La Cousine Bette" (1848). His novel "Eugenia Grande" was translated into Russian in 1844 by the young writer Fyodor Dostoevsky.
One year before his death, being in declining health, Balzac traveled to Poland to see his pen-friend of 15 years, Countess Evelina Hanska. She was a wealthy lady of the Polish nobility. They married in Berdichev, Russian Empire, in 1850, when Balzac had only three months left to live. He died on August 18, 1850, in Paris, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of Père Lachaise.- David Dodge was born in Berkeley, California. His career as a writer began when he made a bet with his wife Elva that he could write a better mystery novel than the one she was reading. He drew on his professional experience as a Certified Public Accountant to create his first series character, San Francisco tax expert and reluctant detective James "Whit" Whitney. "Death and Taxes" was published in 1941 and he won $5.00 from Elva. Three more Whitney novels were published between 1943 and 1946. After Pearl Harbor Dodge was commissioned in the U.S. Navy and emerged three years later as a Lieutenant Commander. On his release from active duty, he set out for Guatemala by car with his wife and daughter. His Latin-American experiences produced a second series character, expatriate private investigator and tough-guy adventurer Al Colby, and launched Dodge's second career as a travel writer. Dodge was fond of explaining that while many writers traveled in order to gather material to write about, his goal was to write in order to gather money to travel. David Dodge also wrote short stories, magazine articles, and plays. He is best known as the author of "To Catch a Thief", which Alfred Hitchcock turned into a film (To Catch a Thief (1955)) starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
- Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos DE Laclos was a French novelist, official, Freemason and army general, best known for writing the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangerous (Dangerous Liaisons) (1782). A unique case in French literature, he was for a long time considered to be as scandalous a writer as the Marquis DE Sade or Restif DE La Bretonne. He was a military officer with no illusions about human relations, and an amateur writer; however, his initial plan was to "write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on earth after his death"; from this point of view he mostly attained his goals with the fame of his masterwork Les Liaisons dangerous. It is one of the masterpieces of novelist literature of the 18th century, which explores the amorous intrigues of the aristocracy. It has inspired many critical and analytic commentaries, plays and films.
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David Peter Renwick (born 4 September 1951) is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990) and the mystery series Jonathan Creek (1997).
Before beginning his full-time comedy writing career, he worked as a journalist on his home town newspaper, the Luton News.
On beginning his comedy career, he initially worked in a team with writing partner Andrew Marshall, the pair of them providing material to popular sketch shows such as The Two Ronnies (1971) and Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979) during the late 1970s and early '80s. One of the most celebrated sketches he wrote for the former was a parody of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind, where a "Charlie Smithers" chose to answer questions on the specialist subject "Answering the question before last", adapted from his "Answering one question behind all the time" sketch from their The Burkiss Way for BBC Radio 4. Their short-lived LWT series for ITV, End of Part One, was an attempt to transfer Burkiss-style humour to television. Later in the 1980s they also wrote for the sketch show Alexei Sayle's Stuff and Spike Milligan's There's a Lot of It About.
In 1982 they penned the comedy drama serial Whoops Apocalypse for LWT, based on the insanity of international politics in the age of nuclear weapons, and four years later they adapted the screenplay (changing most of the characters and situations completely) into a feature film version. In 1983 they wrote The Steam Video Company for Thames Television, a short comedy series based on very silly parodies of famous novels. This was followed in 1986 by Hot Metal (1986) for LWT, a six-part satire of the tabloid newspaper industry starring Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Gordon Sinclair. The show was a critical success and returned for a further six episodes in 1988 with a revised cast of Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and Caroline Milmoe.
Renwick began writing solo in 1990 when he created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990), starring Richard Wilson, which was highly successful and went on to be a popular hit for the following decade. It also ran for four seasons as an American remake titled Cosby, starring Bill Cosby, although this is generally regarded as a very loose adaptation of the original.
In 1994 Renwick married his fiancée Eleanor Hogarth.
In 1997, Renwick devised the comedy-drama Jonathan Creek (1997), based around the crime-solving abilities of the eponymous designer of magic tricks, played by comedian Alan Davies. As of 2016, thirty-two episodes have been produced across five short-run series and five specials. The slow rate of production is partly due to Renwick's writing of the episodes, which he describes as being a painstaking process in which the intricacies of the plots take several months to work out.
He has also written for 'straight' television drama, contributing episodes to ITV's famous adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring David Suchet. Renwick's fondness for rationalist murder mysteries with supernatural overtones, later developed fully in Jonathan Creek is evident in elements he added to the Poirot adaptations. In 1992, Renwick and co-writer Michael Baker received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Poirot episode "The Lost Mine", which aired in the U.S. as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery!.
Another comedy-drama Renwick has penned is entitled Love Soup (2005), starring Tamsin Greig and Michael Landes, premiered on BBC One on 27 September 2005. Renwick, and his ex writing partner Marshall, had cameo roles in an episode of the series as members of a television sitcom scriptwriting team. Owen Brenman also featured throughout much of the series as well as Doreen Mantle who appeared in one episode, both actor with who David Renwick had worked with before in One Foot in the Grave (1990).
He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the British Comedy Awards 2008.- Virginia C. Andrews was born on 6 June 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for The Dollanganger Saga (2014), Flowers in the Attic (1987) and V.C. Andrews' Heaven (2019). She died on 19 December 1986 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA.
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Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has won numerous national and international awards for his poetic feature and documentary films.- Writer
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Ben Mezrich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. Since then he has published eight books with a combined printing of more than a million copies in nine languages. He is the author of the blockbuster New York Times bestseller Bringing Down the House: The True Story of Six MIT Kids Who Took Vegas for Millions, which is being made into a major motion picture produced by Kevin Spacey and MGM. Ugly Americans is Mezrich's eighth book and his second foray into nonfiction.
The number is now 25 books (as of August 2021).- Writer
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Ian McEwan was born on 21 June 1948 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Atonement (2007), The Good Son (1993) and Enduring Love (2004). He has been married to Annalena McAfee since 1997. He was previously married to Penny Allen.- Kerry Greenwood is known for Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012), Murder Call (1997) and Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears (2020).
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Tennessee Williams met long-term partner Frank Merlo in the summer of 1948 (Merlo died of lung cancer in the fall of 1963). Though separated briefly in 1961 and again in 1962, the two were partners for 15 years. Merlo acted as his personal manager/secretary.
Williams spent much of his most prolific years in Rome, Italy, and his enduring friendship with Italian stage and screen legend Anna Magnani lasted 24 years and inspired both "The Rose Tattoo" and "Orpheus Descending". Magnani realized the lead parts of these two plays, which were written for her, in their film versions. The turbulent and inspirational friendship shared between Williams and Magnani is the subject of the internationally acclaimed play "Roman Nights" by Franco D'Alessandro.
Aside from his published "Memoirs", the only authorized biographical book on Williams is by Bruce Smith, entitled "Costly Performances - Tennessee Williams; The Last Stage." This book deals with the last four years of Williams' life (1979-1983).- Writer
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Robert Bloch was born on 5 April 1917 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for Psycho (1960), Psycho II (1983) and Psycho (1998). He was married to Eleanor Zalisko Alexander and Marion Holcombe. He died on 23 September 1994 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Jean Redon is known for Eyes Without a Face (1960), Eyes Without a Face and Conduite à gauche (1962).
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His paternal grandparents were Marie Cessete Dumas (a Haitian slave) and Marquis Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. Antoine disapproved of their son, Thomas-Alexandre, joining the French army under the "Davy de la Pailleterie" name, so Thomas-Alexandre used his mother's surname instead. He became a valued general of Napoleon, and after he married the daughter of a local tavern owner, Thomas-Alexandre had a son of his own. This son was Alexandre Dumas, who became world-famous as the author of "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo".- Writer
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Born in North London, he attended Orley Farm Prep School. Then, he attended Rugby School and he graduated from York University. He wrote his first book when he was only 23 years old. Not only is he a talented screenwriter, he has written over 20 books for children. He continues to write and a list of his books is below. His most recent film project has been from 2002-2005 as the creator and screenwriter of Foyle's War (2002) series 1, 2, and 3. His wife, Jill Green joins him as producer on this series. He and Jill have two sons, Nicholas and Cassian.- Writer
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Gillian Flynn was born on 24 February 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Gone Girl (2014), Widows (2018) and Sharp Objects (2018). She has been married to Brett Nolan since 2007. They have two children.- Writer
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Lynda La Plante was born on 15 March 1943 in Liverpool, England, UK. She is a writer and actress, known for Prime Suspect (1991), Prime Suspect 3 (1993) and Widows (2018). She was previously married to Richard La Plante.- Writer
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In 2002 Mary Higgins Clark published her memoir "Kitchen Privileges". The book describes her upbringing, first marriage and how she became such a famous author. Meanwhile 36 movies have been made that are based on Mary Higgins Clark's thrillers. For a while Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter published their own magazine.- Caroline Graham was born on 17 July 1931 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, UK. She is a writer, known for Midsomer Murders (1997), Midsomer Murders: 25 Years of Mayhem (2022) and Super Sleuths (2006).
- Agatha was born as "Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller" in 1890 to Frederick Alvah Miller and Clara Boehmer. Agatha was of American and British descent, her father being American and her mother British. Her father was a relatively affluent stockbroker. Agatha received home education from early childhood to when she turned 12-years-old in 1902. Her parents taught her how to read, write, perform arithmetic, and play music. Her father died in 1901. Agatha was sent to a girl's school in Torquay, Devon, where she studied from 1902 to 1905. She continued her education in Paris, France from 1905 to 1910. She then returned to her surviving family in England.
As a young adult, Agatha aspired to be a writer and produced a number of unpublished short stories and novels. She submitted them to various publishers and literary magazines, but they were all rejected. Several of these unpublished works were later revised into more successful ones. While still in this point of her life, Agatha sought advise from professional writer Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960). Meanwhile she was searching for a suitable husband and in 1913 accepted a marriage proposal from military officer and pilot-in-training Archibald "Archie" Christie. They married in late 1914. Her married name became "Agatha Christie" and she used it for most of her literary works, including ones created decades following the end of her first marriage.
During World War I, Archie Christie was send to fight in the war and Agatha joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, a British voluntary unit providing field nursing services. She performed unpaid work as a volunteer nurse from 1914 to 1916. Then she was promoted to "apothecaries' assistant" (dispenser), a position which earned her a small salary until the end of the war. She ended her service in September, 1918.
Agatha wrote "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", her debut novel ,in 1916, but was unable to find a publisher for it until 1920. The novel introduced her famous character Hercule Poirot and his supporting characters Inspector Japp and Arthur Hastings. The novel is set in World War I and is one of the few of her works which are connected to a specific time period.
Following the end of World War I and their retirement from military life, Agatha and Archie Christie moved to London and settled into civilian life. Their only child Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Christie (1919-2004) was born early in the marriage. Agatha's debut novel was first published in 1920 and turned out to be a hit. It was soon followed by the successful novels "The Secret Adversary" (1922) and "Murder on the Links" (1923) and various short stories. Agatha soon became a celebrated writer.
In 1926, Archie Christie announced to Agatha that he had a mistress and that he wanted a divorce. Agatha took it hard and mysteriously disappeared for a period of 10 days. After an extensive manhunt and much publicity, she was found living under a false name in Yorkshire. She had assumed the last name of Archie's mistress and claimed to have no memory of how she ended up there. The doctors who attended to her determined that she had amnesia. Despite various theories by multiple sources, these 10 days are the most mysterious chapter in Agatha's life.
Agatha and Archie divorced in 1928, though she kept the last name Christie. She gained sole custody of her daughter Rosalind. In 1930, Agatha married her second (and last) husband Max Mallowan, a professional archaeologist. They would remain married until her death in 1976.Christie often used places that she was familiar with as settings for her novels and short stories. Her various travels with Max introduced her to locations of the Middle East, and provided inspiration for a number of novels.
In 1934, Agatha and Max settled in Winterbrook, Oxfordshire, which served as their main residence until their respective deaths. During World War II, she served in the pharmacy at the University College Hospital, where she gained additional training about substances used for poisoning cases. She incorporated such knowledge for realistic details in her stories.
She became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956 and a Dame Commander of the same order in 1971. Her husband was knighted in 1968. They are among the relatively few couples where both members have been honored for their work. Agatha continued writing until 1974, though her health problems affected her writing style. Her memory was problematic for several years and she had trouble remembering the details of her own work, even while she was writing it. Recent researches on her medical condition suggest that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other dementia. She died of natural causes in early 1976. - Ruth Rendell was born on 17 February 1930 in South Woodford, Essex, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Live Flesh (1997), La Cérémonie (1995) and Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987). She was married to Donald John Rendell. She died on 2 May 2015 in London, England, UK.
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P.D. James was born on 3 August 1920 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. She was a writer and producer, known for Children of Men (2006), Death in Holy Orders (2003) and Dalgliesh (2021). She was married to Ernest Connor Bantry White. She died on 27 November 2014 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK.- Cyril Abraham was born on 22 September 1915 in England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Onedin Line (1971), Paul Temple (1969) and Suspense (1962). He died on 30 July 1979 in Manley, Cheshire, England, UK.
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Ann Rule was born on 22 October 1931 in Lowell, Michigan, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for Danger in the Dorm, 12 Desperate Hours (2023) and Dead by Sunset (1995). She was married to William John Rule. She died on 26 July 2015 in Burien, Washington, USA.