The directory «Plots»
Goldman William
(b. 1931)
William Goldman is an American novelist, playwright and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. He lives in New York City.
Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.
William Goldman had been estranged for many years from his brother, playwright James Goldman, before James's death in 1998.
William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays. 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 remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel «The Princess Bride» to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting. He is often called in as an uncredited script doctor on troubled projects.
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.
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.
Maldives, 1993, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Mali, 1995, The Sundance Kid
San-Marino, 1990, Laurence Olivier as Szell
Sao Tome e Principe, 2009, Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy
Sierra Leone, 1990, Laurence Olivier as Szell
