Blueprints: William Goldman In Memoriam

This week, Jorge's screenplay column celebrates the work of one of the most versatile and distinguished screenwriters in cinema, who passed away on November 16^th.

Most artists can only hope to leave at most one iconic piece of legacy behind after they pass way. One great novel, one fantastic painting, one life-changing movie. There are few who can produce more than one. I think we can count with one hang those whose body of work can be considered unequivocally influential and unironically iconic.

William Goldman was one of those artists. Winner of two Academy Awards for Best Screenplay (one original, and one adapted), he left behind an oeuvre that spans across decades, genres, and mediums that most writers can only dream of. Let’s take a look at his most well-remembered screenplays, most of which will be embedded in the collective cinematic culture for generations to come... 

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Linkwarm off the Presses

Whooo. Thanksgiving week flew by and we're suddenly so very far behind on important news items, so a quick link roundup to get us back on track. Here we go...

• Variety Black Panther, Marvelous Mrs Maisel, One Day at a Time, and Crazy Rich Asians are all up for Humanitas prizes
• Variety Paul King, famous for making those delightful Paddington movies, will now direct a fantasy adaption of Time's Fool
• Coming Soon Alessandro Nivola, an actor TFE is always rooting for, cast in The Sopranos prequel movie. He'll play Dickey Moltisanti if that means anything to you fans of The Sopranos out there

More after the jump including Aquaman, If Beale Street Could Talk, the new Fosse/Verdon TV miniseries, deaths of showbiz legends, and more...

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Burt Reynolds (1936-2018)

by Nathaniel R

Burt Reynolds in his iconic breakout role in "Deliverance"Burt Reynolds passed away today of a heart attack. He was 82 years old. Though he lived a long blessed life, it's always a bummer to lose a bonafide movie star. It was particularly exciting recently to learn he'd been cast in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) since Quentin Tarantino has proven so skilled in the past at reviving talent whose heyday had passed and making us think about them differently or just think about them a lot again. Sadly, from our understanding he hadn't yet begun work so though the picture is currently filming they'll have to recast his supporting role. in the picture so it will need to be recast. 

Did you have any feelings about him?

I personally had to grow into Burt Reynolds. When you're a little kid you accept that whoever is a star is a massive star,  even if you don't know why, their origin story being firmly in the past.  When I became interested in movies (the mid 80s) he was already "over" and then when I did start seeing him I didn't get it at all, at least not at first...

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Barbara Harris (1935-2018)

by Nathaniel R

Barbara Harris in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

Sad news yesterday. One of the nation's best and most underappreciated actresses Barbara Harris passed away at 83 from lung cancer. The Chicago native got her start as a teenager on local stages and was an original member of Chicago's famed Second City troupe. Her intermittent screen career sprang initially from her stage successes. Though her filmography is mostly in the 1970s, she made a few 80s movies before retiring including Peggy Sue Got Married, Grosse Point Blank, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Curiously for such a talented thespian of both stage and screen, she seemed somewhat ambivalent about her career, stating that she didn't miss acting after her retirement...

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Tab Hunter (1931-2018)

by Nathaniel R

Tab at the beach in the early '50sApologies that we didn't say our goodbyes to one of Hollywood's best hunks, Tab Hunter, in a timelier fashion.

Tab's real name was Arthur Kelm but back in the studio days almost everyone got a catchier name to boost their celebrity appeal... and you can't really beat Tab Hunter for a memorable name, can you? (Sometimes we wonder why actors don't do that now. Benedict Cumberbatch as a stage name and so many actors use their real names even if their real name is  long and hyphenated and hard to imagine on a marquee!).

Though born in New York his sun-kissed blonde beauty was a perfect fit for sunny California and Hollywood and he rose through the ranks quickly in films. Despite a few well regarded performances peppered throughout his career he was never considered a particularly strong actor and his fame diminished with time. Until recently but we'll get to that in a minute.

Tab Hunter and Dorothy Malone in "Battle Cry" from 1955, the year that made him a big star.

Yours truly first learned of him in the 1980s due to young me's obsession with Natalie Wood (my first actressexual fixation). The studio though they'd make a terrific onscreen couple and threw them together for back-to-back pictures in 1956 -- Burning Hills and The Girl He Left Behind -- because each had had big hits the year before. Teenage Natalie, already a star, was hot off of her first Oscar nomination for Rebel Without a Cause, ample proof that her child-star status would transfer well to adult stardom. Tab had had two huge hits in 1955 (Battle Cry and The Sea Chase). While his films didn't endure like Natalie's (with the arguable exception of Damn Yankees!), Warner Bros was passionate about his bankability...

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