Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley (born May 8, 1940 in New York , † February 11, 2006 in Princeton , New Jersey ) was an American author .
Life
Benchley came from a New York family of writers; his father, Nathaniel Benchley, was a successful writer for children and young people; his grandfather, Robert Benchley, was a famous humorist and actor. In the late 1950s, Peter Benchley studied at Harvard , graduated in 1961 and worked as a journalist for the Washington Post and Newsweek. Later he worked as a speechwriter for the US President Lyndon B. Johnson .
Peter Benchley had his greatest success in 1974 with his book " Jaws " (Jaws) , which was a worldwide bestseller and sold over 20 million times. In this book, Benchley processed incidents that had occurred during the shark attacks on the coast of New Jersey (1916) . The book was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1975 , Benchley played a small supporting role in the film. Through the film and his novel, he stoked people's fear of sharks, which he regretted all his life. Benchley tried to educate people about sharks until his death.
Benchley died at the age of 65 from complications from a lung disease.
Awards
- 1976 nomination " BAFTA Film Award " for the best screenplay "The Jaws" (with Carl Gottlieb )
- 1976 nomination “ Golden Globe ” for the best screenplay “The Jaws” (with Carl Gottlieb)
- 1976 nomination " Writers Guild of America " for "Jaws" (with Carl Gottlieb)
Works (selection)
- Fiction
-
Great white shark . Roman ("Jaws"). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1977, ISBN 3-548-03320-2 .
- Unabridged edition, translated by Vanessa Wieser and Walter Hartmann: Milena-Verlag, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-85286-236-1 .
- Privateer of death . Roman ("The island"). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1980, ISBN 3-550-06310-5 .
- The mountain of fish. Roman ("The girl of the sea of Cortez"). Ullstein, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-550-06361-X .
- Beast - horror of the deep. Roman ("Beast"). Ullstein, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-550-06091-2 .
- Shark - The return of the great white shark. Roman ("White Shark"). Ullstein, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-550-06733-X ( not a continuation of The White Shark ).
- The reef. Roman ("The deep"). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1977, ISBN 3-550-06265-6 .
- Q-Clearance - Top Secret. Thriller ("Q Clearance"). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1989, ISBN 3-548-22140-8 .
- Non-fiction
- Sharks. The shy predators of the seas ("Shark trouble"). Marebuchverlag, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-936384-79-7 .
Film adaptations
- 1975: Great White Shark (Jaws)
- 1977: The depth (The Deep)
- 1980: Buccaneers of Death (The Island)
- 1995: The Beast (Cruel Jaws - Fauci crudeli)
- 1997: The Beast
- 1998: Creature - Death from the Deep (Creature)
- 1999: Amazon - Prisoners of the Jungle (Amazon)
Web links
- Peter Benchley in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Peter Benchley in the catalog of the German National Library
- Peter Benchley's website
- "Author Peter Benchley died" - Hamburger Morgenpost
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Benchley, Peter |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Benchley, Peter Bradford (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American author |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 8, 1940 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | new York |
DATE OF DEATH | February 11, 2006 |
Place of death | Princeton , New Jersey |