Steve Shagan

Stephen H. Shagan (October 25, 1927 – November 30, 2015) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and television and film producer.

Early life Shagan was born in Brooklyn, New York to Rachel (née Rosenzweig) and Barnard H. "Barney" Shagan. Barney ran a pharmacy, Shagan's Pharmacy, at 49 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, with his brother, Samuel. After Barney's death the pharmacy went bankrupt and Samuel liquidated the assets at public auction in 1949. Steve dropped out of high school and joined the United States Coast Guard when World War II broke out. While in the Coast Guard, he started writing to pass the time. Elizabeth Florance "Betty" Ricker, whom he married on November 18, 1956, in Quincy, Massachusetts. Philomena Pisano was the daughter of Katherine "Kitty" Bingham and Fred Anthony Pisano, of the musical-comedy vaudeville team of Pisano and Bingham.

Save the Tiger Shagan wrote the screenplay for and co-produced the 1973 film Save the Tiger, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won a Writers Guild of America Award. His novelization of Save the Tiger, which was his first novel, was actually published a year prior to the film's release. He had written the script first, and while he was shopping it around Hollywood, he wrote the novel to help him deal with the stress of trying to sell the script, which took two years to get produced.

Subsequent films written by Shagan include The Sicilian, which he adapted from the novel by Mario Puzo, and Primal Fear, based on the novel by William Diehl. Shagan also wrote the teleplay for the made-for-television movie Gotti, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Special.

Death Shagan died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on November 30, 2015.

Novels His novels include: Save the Tiger (1972) City of Angels (1975; filmed as Hustle) The Formula (1979) The Circle (1982) The Discovery (1984) Vendetta (1986) Pillars of Fire (1990) A Cast of Thousands (1994)