Alvin Sargent facts for kids

Alvin Sargent
Born	(1927-04-12)April 12, 1927 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	May 9, 2019(2019-05-09) (aged 92) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Screenwriter
Years active	1956–2016
Spouse(s)	Joan Camden (m. 1953; div. 1975) Laura Ziskin (m. 2010; died 2011)

Alvin Sargent (April 12, 1927 – May 9, 2019) was an American screenwriter. He won two Academy Awards, one in 1978 and another in 1981, for his screenplays of Julia and Ordinary People. His most popular contribution is his having been involved in the writing of most of the films in Sony's Spider-Man film series (The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the first exception to this).

Life and career

Sargent was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1945. As of 2006, he was one of 35 alumni to be on the school's Wall of Fame.

Sargent began writing for television in 1953 and through the 1960s he scripted episodes for Route 66, Ben Casey and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He collaborated on his first screenplay for a motion picture in 1966 and gained recognition for I Walk the Line and Paper Moon for which he won the WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and was nominated for an Academy Award. He won the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay in 1978 for the film Julia and again in 1981 for Ordinary People. He collaborated on the 2004 screenplay for Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 released in 2007.

He had a longtime relationship with producer Laura Ziskin; they were married from 2010 until her death in 2011. His brother was writer and producer Herb Sargent.

Sargent died from natural causes at his home in Seattle on May 9, 2019.

Filmography

• Gambit (with Jack Davies) (1966)
• The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
• The Stalking Moon (with Wendell Mayes) (1969)
• I Walk the Line (1970)
• The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
• Paper Moon (1973)
• Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973)
• A Star Is Born (1976) (uncredited)
• Julia (1977)
• Bobby Deerfield (1977)
• Straight Time (with Jeffrey Boam) (1978)
• Ordinary People (1980)
• Nuts (with Tom Topor and Daryl Ponicsan) (1987)
• Dominick and Eugene (1988)
• White Palace (with Ted Tally) (1990)
• Other People's Money (1991)
• What About Bob? (with Laura Ziskin) (1991) (Story Only)
• Hero (with Laura Ziskin and David Webb Peoples) (1992) (Story Only)
• Bogus (1996)
• Anywhere but Here (1999)
• Unfaithful (with William Broyles Jr.) (2002)
• Spider-Man (2002) (uncredited)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man 3 (with Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi) (2007)
• The Amazing Spider-Man (with James Vanderbilt and Steve Kloves) (2012)