Donald Stewart (screenwriter)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donald E. Stewart (born January 24, 1930 in Detroit , Michigan , † April 28, 1999 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American screenwriter who worked as an editor for car magazines before his career as a screenwriter. For his work on the script for the 1982 film Missing , he received several awards, including an Oscar for best adapted screenplay at the 1983 Academy Awards , which he received together with his partner Constantin Costa-Gavras .

life and career

Born in 1930 in Motorcity , Detroit , Stewart was an avid car fanatic throughout his life, starting his career as a journalist and reporter for the Detroit Times before emerging as the founder and co-editor of the automotive magazine Competition Press in his twenties . After working for the weekly magazine for a few years, he was also a brief editor for Hop U and Motor Life magazines . In 1960 he left his hometown and at the same time the journalism branch to switch to advertising. He eventually moved to New York , where he worked as a copywriter and wrote copywriting for various automobile brands, before being hired by the Fletcher-Richards Agency as creative director . As a copywriter and creative director Stewart was already in front of agencies such as James Walter Thompson , Young & Rubicam and BBD & O in action. He held this position for a longer period of time before he decided to continue his career around 1975 in Hollywood , where he also lived until his death in 1999. After moving to California in his mid-forties, he was hired as a screenwriter relatively soon by production companies , with his first noteworthy assignment as a writer in 1973 on an episode of The Rookies . His first job in a film production was the 1976 film Raped Behind Bars , which also became known under the names Captured in Jackson County and Jackson County Jail .

The script was also well received in the US media such as the New York Post and the Los Angeles Times . The script of the film, in which Tommy Lee Jones, among others, played his first major leading role in a film production, was written by the director, the actually relatively inexperienced Michael Miller , in a slightly modified form for his TV film and released about two years later in German-speaking countries again under the name Gefangen in Jackson County film, used. After he also played a major role as a screenwriter in the 1978 film Giants with Steel Fists , and took over the story of Frances Doel with the assistance of Nicholas Niciphor aka Henry Suso , Stewart celebrated his first major successes from 1982. He wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film Missing with his partner Constantin Costa-Gavras and John Nichols, who was never mentioned in the credits . The final screenplay was not completed and submitted until February 5, 1981. The English-language title Missing was initially only intended as a working title , but was later published under this name in the English-language original version. The script was based on a total of 140 pages and the subsequent film on 130 different scenes. For his commitment to the film, Stewart and Costa-Gavras have been rewarded with numerous awards for their work. At the 1983 Academy Awards , the writing duo won an Oscar in the “ Best Adapted Screenplay ” category and also received a BAFTA Award in the “ Best Screenplay ” category , the last time a prize was awarded in this category . Other awards this year included the Writers Guild of America Award in the “Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium” category and the “ALFS Award” at the London Critics Circle Film Awards in the “Screenwriter of the Year” category, where the successful authors -Duo was named Best Screenwriter of the Year. At the presentation of the Golden Globe Awards in 1983 , the two were nominated for a Golden Globe in the " Best Screenplay " category, but in the end could not prevail against the writer Ernest Thompson , who received the award for his work on the film On the Golden Lake .

Already during this time there was often confusion around Donald Stewart, who was born in 1930, because he was often confused, especially in the media, with the Oscar-winning Donald Ogden Stewart , who also acted as a screenwriter . In addition, the son of Donald Ogden Stewart, who was born in 1894 and died in 1980, also bears the name Donald Stewart and is or was active as a journalist in motorsport. This did not deter Donald Stewart, born in 1930, from pursuing a career as a highly paid script doctor and screenwriter. Stewart also worked as a screenwriter in the 1990 film Hunt for Red October , where he worked on the screenplay with Larry Ferguson on the basis of Tom Clancy 's first novel of the same name . Just two years later the film The Hour of the Patriots had its premiere, in which Stewart worked on the script together with W. Peter Iliff . Another two years later, the film The Cartel finally came into the cinemas, whereby it was also used in a Tom Clancy trilogy, since Clancy in all of the last three films on which Donald Stewart had worked, contributed the novel as the basis. In The cartel constellation of three one worked as screenwriters in a consisting of Stewart, Steven Zaillian and John Milius . In 1997, his existing script, which was used in the film Raped Behind Bars , was also used for the film Innocent! Susan Runs used by the director Victoria Muspratt , who also rewrote the script as a screenwriter. Also in 1997 came the last film in which Stewart played a key role as a screenwriter. The direction of Dead Silence was directed by Daniel Petrie Jr.

On April 28, 1999, Stewart died of cancer in his own home in Los Angeles at the age of 69. He survived his wife Joan as well as the children (two sons and a daughter) who had settled in Michigan and Florida and four grandchildren who had already been born at the time. Stewart found his final resting place at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery , a cemetery in which numerous well-known personalities from the entertainment industry are buried, at 1218 Glendon Avenue in the west of the California metropolis.

The screenplay Hostiles , discovered posthumously by his widow, formed the basis for Scott Cooper 's film of the same name .

Filmography

Nominations and Awards

Nominations
Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stewart, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stewart, Donald E. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter, newspaper editor and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan, United States
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1999
Place of death Los Angeles , California, United States