Robert Thom

Robert Thom (July 2, 1929 – May 8, 1979) was an American writer of films, plays, novels and poems. He is best known for writing the screenplay for Death Race 2000, produced by Roger Corman's New World and directed by Paul Bartel.

Early life Born Robert Thom in Brooklyn, New York, to mother Lily Pendlebury, he had a sister. Thom graduated from Yale University as a promising poet in 1952 and became a Rhodes Scholar. He studied in Oxford for a year.

Career He sold his first play, The Minotaur, to the Circle in the Square Theatre producers, José Quintero, Ted Mann, Emilie Stevens and Jason Wingreen, in 1954. He continued and succeeded in establishing himself as a young playwriting talent in the New York City theater scene.

In 1957, he came to Broadway to work on Compulsion, based on the book and play by Meyer Levin about the Leopold and Loeb case.

Wild in the Streets, based on a short story written by Thom and originally published in Esquire under the title, "The Day It All Happened, Baby!" was an exploitation film success for American International Pictures in 1968.

He married actress Janice Rule in 1956; the couple had a daughter, Kate, before they divorced in 1961.

Thom married actress Millie Perkins in 1964; they had two daughters, Lillie and Hedy. They were separated at the time of his death in 1979.

Thom, then a resident of New York City, died from a heart attack while staying in a hotel in Malibu, California, at age 49.

Selected theatre credits The Minotaur (1954) Sailing to Byzantium Compulsion (1957) Bicycle Ride to Nevada (1963)

Selected Poems Children of Ladybug Vaticum

Selected film credits Compulsion (1959) The Subterraneans (1960) All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) Wild in the Streets (1968) The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) Angel, Angel, Down We Go (1969) – also directed Bloody Mama (1970) The Phantom of Hollywood (1974) Alias Big Cherry (1975) Death Race 2000 (1975) Crazy Mama (1975) The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)