'On the Waterfront' screenwriter dies in NY at 95

[Faygo Kid]

Source: AP (via Yahoo)

NEW YORK – Budd Schulberg, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the Marlon Brando classic "On the Waterfront," died Wednesday at age 95.

Schulberg, the son of a studio boss who earlier had defined the Hollywood hustle with the novel "What Makes Sammy Run?" in 1941, died of natural causes at his home in Westhampton Beach, in New Yokr State, said his wife, Betsy Schulberg. He was taken to a nearby medical center, where doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive him, she said.

"He was very loved," she said, "and cherished."

"On the Waterfront," directed by Elia Kazan and filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey, was released in 1954 to great acclaim and won eight Academy Awards. It included one of cinema's most famous lines, uttered by Brando as the failed boxer Terry Malloy: "I coulda been a contender." . . .

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_schulberg

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He achieved much more than just "On the Waterfront," although that was enough. He was deeply involved in liberating and chronicling the Nazi war camps.

RIP, Budd.

[babylonsister]

1. What a great way to go, and a great age. imo. :) RIP, Budd. nt

[Blandocyte]

2. RIP. He was a contenda

[aquart]

3. That he was. RIP.

[nolabear]

4. An iconic movie. Thank you. RIP

I'd love to do something half that amazing before I die.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

5. 'Waterfront' good, but "A Face in the Crowd" is his masterpiece

Starring Andy Griffith as a phony populist huckster - best film on the media and corporate control ever. Blows the overrated 'Network" out of the water.

[BuelahWitch]

9. Agreed. Saw it last year.

Fantastic all the way around.

[Doctor_J]

11. So was The Harder They Fall

Bogart's last film, with Rod Steiger, Nemiah Persoff, and Jan Sterling, is one of my top 10 of all time.

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Yet Sammy Glick lives on...

Well, sort of...

(Actually, the model for the character actuallly died rather young.)

Too bad he never saw a finished film of what is my candidate for the best book about the business ever written, "What Makes Sammy Run?"

A good man and a true writer; those things mattered to him.

[murielm99]

7. Do you consider Irving Thalberg to be the model

for the character?

I always believed it was a composite.

I love the book. I agree with the poster above that "A Face in the Crowd" is a great, and IMHO, underrated movie.

[PurityOfEssence]

15. No, I'm going with the conventional assumption of Jerry Wald

Thalberg was the model for Monroe Stahr in "The Last Tycoon", but it's interesting that Schulberg worked (and traveled to location for research) with Fitzgerald while working on "Winter Carnival"...

Yes, Glick is an amalgam, but I go with the generally accepted belief that Wald was the major influence.

[BuelahWitch]

8. "What Make Sammy Run?" was done on TV in the '50s

It's available on DVD and features a pretty good cast: John Forsythe, Dina Merrill and Larry Blyden as Sammy Glick. Blyden is brilliant in the part, which makes the fact that he was hosting a game show at the end of his life rather sad.

[Vidar]

10. RIP Mr. Schulberg.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. RIP, Budd. Say hi to Karl, Marlon and Lee for us.

:toast:

[Paladin]

13. RIP To A Great And Influential American. (n/t)

[Blue_Tires]

14. r.i.p.

[Rob Gregory Browne]

16. An Amazing Writer

May he rest in peace.