Herb Gardner

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Herbert George "Herb" Gardner (born December 28, 1934 in Brooklyn , New York City , New York , † September 25, 2003 in New York City, New York ) was an American cartoonist , playwright and screenwriter .

Life

Herb Gardner began his cartoonist career in the 1950s. His comic strips The Nebbishes appeared at the height of his career as an illustrator in The Chicago Tribune newspaper and in 60 to 75 other publications. They also became extremely popular as posters and postcards before Herb Gardner finally turned to writing in 1960.

Gardner's first and only novel A Piece of the Action was published in 1958 . He had greater literary success but as a playwright in 1962 with the premiere of the piece Thousand Clowns ( A Thousand Clowns ). Herb Gardner received an Oscar nomination for the best adapted screenplay for the film of the same name in 1965. Martin Balsam was awarded the Oscar for best male supporting actor. Herb Gardner's other plays were also made into films: He directed The Goodbye People in 1984, while Thieves , which premiered in 1974 at the Broadhurst Theater , was filmed in 1977 with Hector Elizondo and Bob Fosse , among others . Herb Gardner wrote the scripts for both films. Another script, based on a 1968 short story by Gardner, was Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? Dustin Hoffman played the main role in the film .

After the publication of the one-act cycle Life and / or Death in 1979, Herb Gardner experienced his greatest commercial success with the play I'm not Rappaport , which premiered in 1985 and was subsequently successful on Broadway and in London's West End. The piece is about the friendship of the two old New Yorkers Nat and Midge, who exchange ideas in humorous and witty dialogues about the trials and tribulations of life, especially old age. For I'm not Rappaport , Herb Gardner received, among other things, the Tony Award for the best piece of 1986. The German-language premiere took place in 1987 in Berlin. The comedy was also made into a film, the character of the Jew Nat took over Walter Matthau , that of the African American Midge Ossie Davis .

The autobiographical piece Conversations with My Father was premiered in 1992 and deals with the problems of assimilation by a Jewish immigrant family in New York in the 1930s. Along with Thousand Clowns and I'm not Rappaport, it became the playwright's greatest success. In 2000, Herb Gardner received the Writers Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award .

Works

  • A Piece of the Action New York 1958.
  • A Thousand Clowns (German: a thousand clowns ) premiered in 1962
  • The Goodbye People UA 1968
  • Thieves (Eng .: thieves ) UA 1974
  • Life and / or Death UA 1979
  • I'm not Rappaport (German: I'm not Rappaport ) UA 1985
  • Conversations with My Father (Eng .: Conversations with My Father ) WP 1992

Filmography

  • 1965: Thousand Clowns (A Thousand Clowns) - template, script, producer involved
  • 1971: Who is Harry Kellerman? (Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?) - Template, co-producer
  • 1977: I'm right and it's your fault (Thieves) - template
  • 1980: La Fraîcheur de l'aube - Original (The Good-Bye People)
  • 1984: The Goodbye People - original, director
  • 1987: Square One TV producer
  • 1987: Ishtar - actor
  • 1996: I am not Rappaport (I'm not Rappaport) - template, director

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gardner, Herb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gardner, Herbert George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cartoonist, playwright, and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 2003
Place of death New York City , New York