Lawrence Kasdan
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| Lawrence Kasdan | ||||||||||
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| Born | January 14 1949 Miami, Florida | |||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Meg Kasdan (1971-) | |||||||||
| Children | Jake Kasdan (b.1974) Jon Kasdan | |||||||||
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Lawrence Kasdan (born 14 January, 1949, Miami, Florida) is an American movie producer, director and screenwriter. Raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he graduated from Morgantown High School in 1966, he went on to attend the University of Michigan as an education major.
Lawrence graduated from the University of Michigan with an MA in Education, originally planning on a career as an English teacher. He was unable to find a teaching position, however and became an advertising copywriter, a profession he found so loathsome he refused to bring a second child into the world until he escaped it. Still, he labored at it for five years (even picking up a Clio Award along the way), first in Detroit and later in Los Angeles where he tried to interest Hollywood in his screenplays.
Kasdan's introduction into the film business came in the mid-1970s when he sold his script for The Bodyguard to Warner Bros. as a vehicle for Diana Ross. The script became stuck in "development hell" and became one of several scripts successively called "the best un-made film in Hollywood"; it was eventually produced as a 1992 film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.
George Lucas commissioned Kasdan in 1979 to complete the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back after the death of Leigh Brackett. Lucas then commissioned Kasdan to write the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark and the last installment of the Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. Kasdan made his directing debut with Body Heat in 1981.
Kasdan is known for both writing and directing his films, which have ranged from Westerns to romantic comedies to, most prominently, thought-provoking dramas. He has received four Academy Award nominations, for screenplays to The Big Chill, Grand Canyon, and The Accidental Tourist, for which he also earned a nomination for Best Picture. He has cast Kevin Kline in five of his films.
He makes a cameo appearance in James L. Brooks' comedy As Good As It Gets as the fed-up psychiatrist of Jack Nicholson's novelist.
Kasdan is the father of directors/actors Jake and Jon Kasdan.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | The Empire Strikes Back | writer |
| 1981 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | writer |
| Body Heat | writer, director | |
| Continental Divide | writer | |
| 1983 | Return of the Jedi | writer |
| The Big Chill | writer, director, and executive producer | |
| 1985 | Silverado | writer, director, and producer |
| 1988 | The Accidental Tourist | writer, director, and producer |
| 1990 | I Love You to Death | director |
| 1991 | Grand Canyon | writer, director, and producer |
| 1992 | The Bodyguard | writer and producer |
| 1994 | Wyatt Earp | writer, director, and producer |
| 1995 | French Kiss | director |
| 1999 | Mumford | writer and director |
| 2003 | Dreamcatcher | writer and director |
| 2008 | Time Share | director |
[edit] External links
Films directed by Lawrence Kasdan |
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Body Heat (1981) • The Big Chill (1983) • Silverado (1985) • The Accidental Tourist (1988) • I Love You to Death (1990) • Grand Canyon (1991) • Wyatt Earp (1994) • French Kiss (1995) • Mumford (1999) • Dreamcatcher (2003) |
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