David Seidler

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David Seidler (born in London in the summer of 1937 ) is a British - American screenwriter of Jewish descent. From the mid-1980s onwards, he worked as a writer for more than a dozen American television productions, mostly dramas. His Oscar- winning screenplay for Tom Hooper's historical drama The King's Speech (2010) earned him lasting fame .

Life

Moved to the United States and worked as a screenwriter

David Seidler was born as the son of the fur trader Bernard Seidler in the third quarter (July to September) 1937 in London, where he grew up as an only child. His parents said they belonged to the British middle class and he was mostly raised by a nanny. At the beginning of the Second World War, Seidler's family moved from London to the small town of Lingfield ( Surrey ) for fear of German air raids , and later with a ship convoy to New York , where the father maintained an office. His paternal grandparents were killed in the Holocaust . After crossing the Atlantic - during which the convoy was attacked by a German submarine - Seidler began to stutter . In order to build up their son, the parents let him listen to the radio speeches of the British King George VI. who himself had suffered from severe stuttering. At the same time, Seidler completed speech therapy in the 1940s. However, he only got his stuttering under control as a teenager - with the help of curses, among other things.

In New York, Seidler went to school together with the later film director Francis Ford Coppola . He moved to the College of Cornell University , which he attended until 1959. There he counted among others Thomas Pynchon to his circle of friends. Like Pynchon, Seidler was aiming for a career as a writer and included the translation of dubbed Japanese horror films among his first assignments. From the mid-1960s Seidler worked as a screenwriter on some episodes of The Adventures of Seaspray (1965-1967). The series, which is about a widowed writer (played by Walter Brown ) who goes on adventurous sailing trips through the South Seas with his children , took Seidler himself to the Pacific region. In Fiji , he then worked as a political advisor to the local government before he returned to the United States and worked in the advertising industry for several years.

At the end of the 1970s, Seidler moved to Los Angeles with his second wife, Jacqueline Feather ( "I didn't really have money, no name, no real career" ). There he completed a screenplay in 1979 about the life of Preston Tucker (1903-1956). The American carmaker and self-made man had designed a modern and inexpensive passenger car at the end of the 1940s , but was defeated in the power struggle with big industry. The film rights to the story belonged to Seidler's former school friend Francis Ford Coppola, whom the author was able to inspire for a script. However, Tucker , with Jeff Bridges in the title role, didn't hit theaters until 1988. Praised by film-dienst as an enthusiastic and confessing film about the “ American Dream ”, the biography won several film awards and was nominated for three Oscars , but was not financially successful.

Seidler was unable to build on the previous cinema success straight away. He fell out with Tucker director Coppola and from then on was mainly subscribed to the writing of scripts for television productions with his wife Jacqueline Feather. As early as 1985, with the script for the Emmy- nominated television film Crazy Hollywood, they had taken on a fictional encounter between rival Hollywood gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons (played by Jane Alexander and Elizabeth Taylor ). In addition to other biographies such as Onassis, the richest man in the world (1988) and Soraya (2003) with Raúl Juliá and Anna Valle in the title role, scripts for the action and fantasy films Son of the Dragon (2006) and followed from the mid-2000s Kung Fu Killer (2008). Seidler and Feather separated personally and professionally after thirty years of marriage.

Success with "The King's Speech"

The great success as a screenwriter in the cinema came with the historical drama The King's Speech (2010). For research on the British King George VI. (played by Colin Firth ), who overcomes his stuttering with the help of the unconventional Lionel Logue ( Geoffrey Rush , whom Seidler himself had in mind for the role), Seidler had begun decades before the film was made. Through a friend in London, he made contact with the brain surgeon Valentine Logue, a son of the Australian speech therapist, in the early 1980s. This had promised him his support for the development of a script, provided that the still living Queen Mother Elizabeth would give her consent. Seidler made contact with the widow of George VI. but she asked him by post in 1982 not to publish the story during her lifetime, as the memories of it would have been too painful.

The screenwriter respected this decision and did not resume work until late 2005, three years after the Queen Mother's death at the age of 101. According to Seidler, the sequel to The King's Speech was accompanied by a throat cancer diagnosis made to him , which is successfully treated. Since he had lost contact with Logue's bereaved and his notebooks were missing, he researched a lot about King George VI. At the same time, he incorporated his own experiences of the speech therapy he had undergone in the 1940s and, according to his own account, benefited from the memories of an uncle who himself was treated by Logue for speech problems. On the advice of his then wife Jacqueline Feather, Seidler reworked a first draft for a play to simplify the script. The script went to British film producers through the London playwright Tom Minter, who then planned to make it a cinema production. In 2008, a French theater company held a reading of The King's Speech at London's Pleasance Theater , which was also attended by the mother of British director Tom Hooper . Hooper's mother made her son aware of the material and he took over the direction a little later.

Eight weeks before the film was shot, the production designers found the bereaved Lionel Logues who, in addition to the original papers, also kept the diary for speech therapy Georg VI. and had a medical report on the king. Seidler then reworked some parts of the script, sometimes using original quotes from the diary. The film received positive reviews when it was released and received multiple awards. His screenplay earned Seidler several film awards, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association award , the British Independent Film Award , the British Academy Film Award and the Oscar . The 74-year-old received the latter award in 2011 as the oldest winner in the “ Best Original Screenplay ” category . A year later, however, Seidler's age record was surpassed by 76-year-old Woody Allen ( Midnight in Paris ).

Less than a year after The King's Speech was a success at the Academy Awards, Seidler's original theater version premiered at the Yvonne Arnaud Theater in Guildford , Surrey, directed by Adrian Noble . The leading roles were played by Charles Edwards (George VI), Jonathan Hyde (Logue) and Emma Fielding (Elizabeth). After a tour of the UK, The King's Speech was finally performed on March 27, 2012 at Wyndham's Theater in London's West End . Despite excellent reviews, Seidler's play did not find a great response from the audience so soon after the film version, which is why it will be removed from the program on May 12, 2012.

A German-language version of the piece was performed at the Wiener Kammerspiele in the 2012/2013 season .

David Seidler was married several times. From his first marriage there was a son. He is also the father of a daughter.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1965–1967: The Adventures of the Seaspray ( Adventures of the Seaspray , television series)
  • 1985: Crazy Hollywood ( Malice in Wonderland , TV)
  • 1988: Onassis, The Richest Man in the World (TV)
  • 1988: My Father, My Son (TV)
  • 1988: Tucker
  • 1995: Believe me! ( Dancer in the Dark , TV)
  • 1997: Love between lies and deceit ( Lies He Told , TV)
  • 1998: Goldrush ( Goldrush: A Real Life Alaskan Adventure , TV)
  • 1999: The King and I ( The King and I )
  • 1999: Come On, Get Happy: Die Partridge Familie ( Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story , TV)
  • 1999: Madeline: Lost in Paris ( Madeline: Lost in Paris )
  • 2003: Soraya (TV)
  • 2006: Son of the Dragon (TV multipart)
  • 2008: Kung Fu Killer - Part 1 & 2 ( Kung Fu Killer , TV)
  • 2010: The King's Speech

Awards

  • 1989: Writers Guild of America Award for Onassis, the richest man in the world (Category: "Adapted Long Form")
  • 2010: British Independent Film Award for The King's Speech (Best Screenplay)
  • 2010: San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for The King's Speech (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2010: Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for The King's Speech (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2010: St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for The King's Speech (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2011: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for The King's Speech (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2011: Golden Globe nomination for The King's Speech (Best Screenplay)
  • 2011: British Academy Film Award for The King's Speech (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2011: Oscar for The King's Speech (Best Original Screenplay)

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b cf. Interview with Colin Firth and Tom Hooper about The King's Speech on the Charlie Rose Show, November 25, 2010, 11:00 PM EST (accessed via LexisNexis Business )
  2. ↑ cf. DAVID SEIDLER - Writer ( Memento from December 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at kingsspeech.com (accessed on January 24, 2011)
  3. ↑ Xan Brooks: 'Antisemite' claim may harm Oscar chances . In: The Guardian , January 19, 2011, p. 9
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g David Seidler: How the 'Naughty Word' cured the King's Stutter (and Mine) . In: Mail on Sunday , December 19, 2010 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
  5. ↑ cf. Jewish talent takes home Golden Globes in TV and film at jpost.com, January 17, 2011 (accessed January 26, 2011)
  6. ↑ Peter Jacobs: David Seidler '59 Wins Oscar for The King's Speech ( Memento from July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at cornellsun.com, February 28, 2011 (accessed February 28, 2011)
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Patrick Goldstein: The Big Picture . In: Los Angeles Times , January 11, 2011, Part D, p. 1
  8. ↑ a b cf. By George, Colin Firth's got it . In: The New Zealand Herald , January 8, 2011 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
  9. ↑ cf. Critique by Franz Everschor in film-dienst 23/1988 (accessed via Munzinger Online )
  10. ↑ Elizabeth Renzetti: The royal tribulations of a screenwriter and former stutterer . In: The Globe and Mail , January 26, 2011, p. A10
  11. ↑ Tim Matsers: The King's Speech play has its world premiere , February 3, 2012.
  12. ↑ BBC News : The King's Speech play to close in West End , April 20, 2012.
  13. ↑ David Seidler The King's Speech ( Memento from August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), on josefstadt.org, September 22, 2012.
  14. ↑ cf. Acceptance speech by Seidler at the 83rd Academy Awards, February 28, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Seidler, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH London