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Budd Schulberg Author of What Makes Sammy Run? |
 Born March 27, 1914
in New York City, Budd Schulberg was raised in Hollywood,
California. Because his father, B.P. Schulberg, worked for
Paramount Studios, Schulberg was able to observe the film industry
first-hand. His novel What Makes Sammy Run?, about the rise
of a ruthless film magnate, was the National Critics' Choice as Best
First Novel of the Year in 1941. Among his other works of fiction
are The Disenchanted, The Harder They Fall, Some Faces
in the Crowd, Sanctuary V, and Everything That Moves.
His non-fiction works include From The Ashes: Voice of Watts, Loser
and Champion: Muhammad Ali, The Four Seasons of Success and Swan
Watch, the true story of a pair of swans with whom he made friends
near his Eastern Long Island home.
He wrote the screenplays for A Face in the Crowd (1957) starring Andy Griffith, Walter Matthau and Patricia Neal, and On The Waterfront (1954), which earned eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Eva Marie Saint), Best Director (Elia Kazan) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay (Budd Schulberg). On Broadway, Schulberg has been represented by The Disenchanted (written with Harvey Breit), his stage adaptation of On The Waterfront, and the musical version of What Makes Sammy Run?, for which he wrote the libretto with his brother Stuart (with a score by Ervin Drake). In the wake of the Los Angeles riots in the mid-60s, Schulberg helped found the Watts Writers Workshop. He also co-founded, in 1971, the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in New York City, with which he is still actively involved. His autobiography, Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince, weaves his personal story through that of the pioneer film world into which he was born. A lifelong fight fan (the only non-boxer ever honored as a Living Legend of Boxing by the World Boxing Association), he has published a collection of his boxing pieces, Sparring With Hemingway, and a second collection, The Hardest Games, is currently in the works. He has also written a screenplay for director Spike Lee based on the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fights that were seen as a symbol of the clash of Democratic America with Nazi Germany. With the success of Million Dollar Baby, Schulberg and Lee are optimistic that the film will finally be "green lighted." Schulberg continues to live and work on Eastern Long Island. His son, Benn, attended Vassar College and his daughter, Jessica, attended Barnard College. [Budd Schulberg's Film Credits on the Internet Movie Database] |