Bo Goldman

Bo Goldman (born Robert Spencer Goldman; September 10, 1932 – July 25, 2023) was an American screenwriter and playwright. He received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Writers Guild of America Awards, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. He also received two BAFTA Award nominations.

Goldman received two Academy Awards for his screenplays of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Melvin and Howard (1980). He also wrote The Rose (1979), Shoot the Moon (1982), Scent of a Woman (1992), and Meet Joe Black (1998).

Early life and education Robert Spencer Goldman was born in 1932 to a Jewish family in New York City. He was the son of Lillian (Levy), a hat model, and Julian Goldman.

Goldman attended Princeton University, where he wrote, produced, and composed lyrics for, and was president of, the famed Princeton Triangle Club, a proving ground for F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Stewart, and director Joshua Logan. on Enewetak, an atoll in the Marshall Islands of the central Pacific Ocean used for nuclear bomb testing. Goldman was mentored by Fred Coe (the "D.W. Griffith of dramatic television") and became part of the twilight of the Golden Age, associate producing and script editing Coe's prestigious Playhouse 90s, Days of Wine and Roses directed by a young John Frankenheimer, The Plot to Kill Stalin starring Eli Wallach, and Horton Foote's Old Man. Goldman went on to produce and write for public television on the award-winning NET Playhouse. After working together at NET, Burt Lancaster encouraged Goldman to try his hand at screenwriting, which resulted in an early version of Shoot the Moon. The script became Goldman's calling card, and he was soon "known for some of the best screenplays of the 1970s and '80s".

1975–1990: Prominence and acclaim After reading Shoot the Moon, Miloš Forman asked Goldman to write the screenplay for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. For his work on the film Goldman also received the Writers Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award. Consequently, Shoot the Moon released with little or no fanfare the following February – long after the fourth quarter "awards season." Nonetheless, Goldman's peers remembered, and the following year, he earned his third Writers Guild Award nomination. David Denby – New York Magazine added "The picture seems like a miracle. A beautiful achievement." David Edelstein – The New York Post wrote "One of the best films of the decade."

For the next few years, Goldman contributed uncredited work to many scripts, including Miloš Forman's Ragtime (1981) starring James Cagney and Donald O'Connor, The Flamingo Kid (1984) starring Matt Dillon, and Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990). Roger Ebert – Chicago Sun-Times declared, "The screenplay is by Bo Goldman (Melvin and Howard), who is more interested in the people than the plot. By the end of "Scent of a Woman," we have arrived at the usual conclusion of the coming-of-age movie, and the usual conclusion of the prep school movie. But rarely have we been taken there with so much intelligence and skill." The film has an 88% score on the critic site Rotten Tomatoes. Next up was Harold Becker's City Hall (1996) again starring Al Pacino and also John Cusack. Pacino played the corrupt Mayor of New York City. The film is peppered with musical theatre references, an homage to Goldman's father and his own Broadway days. — Eric Roth, The New York Times, 1998.

After this was Meet Joe Black (1998) starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins.

Goldman did a rewrite of The Perfect Storm in 2000. The film went on to earn $329,000,000.

Personal life and death Goldman married Mabel "Mab" Ashforth in 1954, and they remained married until her death in 2017. Goldman died on July 25, 2023. He was ninety.

Filmography

Television

Film writer Swing Shift (1984) The Flamingo Kid (1984) Dick Tracy (1990) First Knight (1995) The Perfect Storm (2000) Goya's Ghosts (2006)

Unmade scripts Year Association Category Title Result Ref.1980 Boston Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay Melvin and Howard National Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay New York Film Critics Circle Best Screenplay