William Goldman

: "This article is about the screenwriter/novelist. For the mathematician, see William Goldman (professor)."

Infobox Writer
name =
pseudonym = S. Morgenstern
birthdate = Birth date and age|1931|8|12
birthplace = Chicago, Illinois, United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Screenwriter, novelist, playwright, non-fiction author.
genre = Fiction, Literature, Thriller, Drama
movement =
influences = Irwin Shaw, Ingmar Bergman, Ross Macdonald
website =
spouse = Ilene Jones (1961-1991)

Biography

Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois. He obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and a MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.

According to Goldman's memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, Goldman began writing when he took a creative writing course in college. He did not originally intend to become a screenwriter. His main interests were poetry, short stories, and novels. William Goldman published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. He wrote mostly serious literary works until the death of his first agent when he then began writing thrillers starting with Marathon Man.Fact|date=July 2008

Goldman researched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" for eight years and used Harry Longbaugh (a variant spelling of the Sundance Kid's real name) as his pseudonym for "No Way to Treat a Lady". After deciding he did not want to write a cowboy novel, he turned the story into his first original screenplay and sold it for a record $400,000.Fact|date=July 2008 He went on to use several of his novels as the foundation for his screenplays, such as the "The Princess Bride". Among the many other popular scripts written by Goldman are "The Stepford Wives" (1975), "Marathon Man" (based on his novel) (1976); "A Bridge Too Far" (1977); "Misery" (1990); "Chaplin" (1992); "Maverick" (1994) and "Absolute Power" (1997).

In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood. In one of these he famously sized up the entertainment industry by concluding: "Nobody knows anything."

Goldman has won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for "All the President's Men". He has also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for "Harper" in 1967, and for "Magic" (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.

He was married to Ilene Jones until their divorce in 1991. The couple had two daughters.

Autobiographical fiction

Simon Morgenstern is both a pseudonym and a narrative device invented by Goldman to add another layer to his novel "The Princess Bride". He presents his novel as being an abridged version of a work by the fictional Morgenstern, an author from the equally fictional country of Florin.

The details of Goldman's life given in the introduction and commentary for "The Princess Bride" are also largely fictional. For instance, he says that his wife is a psychiatrist and that he was inspired to abridge Morgenstern's "The Princess Bride" for his only child, a son. ("The Princess Bride" actually originated as a bedtime story for Goldman's two daughters.) He not only treats Morgenstern and the countries of Florin and Guilder as real, but even claims that his own father was Florinese and had emigrated to America.

At one point in "The Princess Bride", Goldman's commentary indicates that he had wanted to add a passage elaborating a scene skipped over by Morgenstern. He explains that his editors would not allow him to take such liberties with the "original" text, and encourages readers to write to his publisher to request a copy of this scene. Both the original publisher and its successor have responded to such requests with letters describing their supposed legal problems with the Morgenstern estate.

In the 25th Anniversary Edition of "The Princess Bride", Goldman claimed that he wanted to adapt the sequel written by Morgenstern, "Buttercup's Baby", but he was unable to do so because Morgenstern's estate wanted Stephen King to do the abridgment instead. He also continued the fictional details of his own life, claiming that his psychiatrist wife had divorced him, and his son had grown to have a son of his own.

Goldman also wrote "The Silent Gondoliers" under the Morgenstern name.

Miscellanea

* Favorite writers: Irwin Shaw, Ingmar Bergman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ross Macdonald.

* His three favorite directors are Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman, and George Stevens.

* In "Which Lie Did I Tell?" Goldman discusses his dislike for “bloodbath action” movies and his spoof of them in "Last Action Hero" when he was hired for $1 million for a month's work on the script.

* Turned down "The Graduate" (“didn't get the book”), "The Godfather" (loved the book, but didn't want to glamorise the Mafia) and "Superman" (a big comic fan, but he didn't want to write with a major movie star in the lead, as was the original plan, so they hired Mario Puzo).

* William Goldman was referred to in Stephen King's 1986 novel "It". In that book he is said to be the only good writer to ever go to Hollywood and remain good. Goldman later wrote the screenplays for King's novels "Misery, Hearts in Atlantis," and "Dreamcatcher."

* Goldman wrote the famous line "Follow the money" for the screenplay of "All the President's Men". Most journalists attribute it to "Deep Throat", the informant in the Watergate scandal, but it is not in "Bob Woodward’s" notes nor in Woodward and "Carl Bernstein's" book or articles. [ Rich, Frank. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/opinion/12rich.html?ex=1276228800&en=3603bd97559812d0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss] | ‘Don’t follow the money’] , "The New York Times", 12 June]

* Gave the Oberlin College commencement address in May 1985, and said that whenever he is mistaken for William Golding, the late British author and Nobel Prize for Literature winner best known for the novel "Lord of the Flies", Goldman smiles and graciously accepts compliments on Golding's writing.

* A widespread rumor was that "Good Will Hunting" was actually written by William Goldman instead of its credited writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. In his book "Which Lie Did I Tell?" Goldman dismisses this, claiming only to have advised them on their script.

*In the DVD commentary for "Fight Club", actor Edward Norton refers to William Goldman as one "ranting and raving about their own obsolescence" in reference to Goldman's criticism of the quality of modern films, particularly those of 1999, the year Fight Club was released.

Credits

Broadway

* "Blood, Sweat, and Stanley Poole" (with James Goldman)
* "A Family Affair" - 1962 (lyrics; book was by James Goldman, music by John Kander)

creenplays (Produced)

* "Masquerade" (with Michael Relph) - 1965
* "Harper" - 1966 (Edgar Award)
* "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" - 1969 (Academy Award)
* "The Hot Rock" - 1972
* "The Stepford Wives" - 1975
* "The Great Waldo Pepper" - 1975
* "Marathon Man" - 1976
* "All the President's Men" - 1976 (Academy Award)
* "A Bridge Too Far" - 1977
* "Magic" - 1978 (Edgar Award)
* "Heat" - 1987
* "The Princess Bride" - 1987
* "Twins" - 1988 (uncredited)
* "Misery" - 1990
* "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" - 1992
* "Year of the Comet" - 1992
* "Chaplin" - 1992
* "Last Action Hero" - 1993 (uncredited)
* "Maverick" - 1994
* "The Chamber" - 1996
* "The Ghost and the Darkness" - 1996
* "Fierce Creatures" - 1997 (uncredited)
* "Absolute Power" - 1997
* "The General's Daughter" - 1999
* "Hearts in Atlantis" - 2001
* "Dreamcatcher" - 2003

creenplays (Unproduced)

* "SHAZAM"
* "Low Fives"
* "The Sea Kings"
* "The Thing Of It Is"

Television

* "Mr. Horn" - 1979

Novels

* "The Temple of Gold" - 1957
* "Your Turn to Curtsy, My Turn to Bow" - 1958
* "Soldier in the Rain" - 1960
* "Boys and Girls Together" - 1964
* "No Way to Treat a Lady" - 1964
* "The Thing of It Is..." - 1967
* "Father's Day" - 1971
* "The Princess Bride" - 1973
* "Marathon Man" - 1974
* "Magic" - 1976
* "Tinsel" - 1979
* "Control" - 1982
* "The Silent Gondoliers" - 1983
* "The Color of Light" - 1984
* "Heat" - 1985
* "Brothers" - 1986

Non-fiction and memoirs

* "" - 1969
* "The Story of 'A Bridge Too Far'" - 1977
* "Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting" - 1983
* "Wait Till Next Year" (with Mike Lupica) -1988
* "Hype and Glory" - 1990
* "Four Screenplays" - 1995
** "Marathon Man", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Princess Bride", and "Misery", with an essay on each
* "Five Screenplays" - 1997
** "All the President's Men", "Magic", "Harper", "Maverick", and "The Great Waldo Pepper", with an essay on each
* "Which Lie Did I Tell? (More Adventures in the Screen Trade)" - 2000
* "The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood? and Other Essays" - 2001

Children's books

* "Wigger" (1974)

Other

* "New World Writing Number 17" - 1960
** A collection of stories, poems and articles by several authors, with an 11-page story entitled "Da Vinci" by Goldman
* "The Craft of the Screenwriter" by John Brady - 1981
** Includes a profile on Goldman and a lengthy interview about his craft
* "The Movie Business Book" by James E. Squire (Editor) - 1992
** Includes an As Told By William Goldman piece
* "Writers on Directors" by Susan Gray - 1999
** Goldman has a piece on Rob Reiner in this book, and another on Norman Jewison
* "The First Time I Got Paid For It: Writers' Tales From the Hollywood Trenches" - 2000
** Introduction by Goldman
* Goldman speaks candidly about his writing process in American Film Foundation's series "Screenwriters: Words into Motion".
* Goldman interviewed by Laurent Vachaud inPositif- 1990.

References