Paddy Chayefsky

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Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist.

He was the only one to have received three solo Academy Awards for writing both adapted and original screenplays during the Golden Age of Television.

His personal, realistic scripts created a naturalistic style of television drama for the 1950s, dramatizing everyday life in the United States.

In All His Jazz, Martin Gottfried wrote that Chayefsky was "the most influential graduate of television's slice of life school of naturalism." "Chrisefsky became a well-known playwright and novelist after his critically acclaimed television plays."

Marty (1955), The Hospital (1971), and Network (1976), he received three Academy Awards for his screenwriter work.

Marty was based on his own television drama about two lonely people finding love.

The Hospital was also satiric, and it was a satire of the television industry.

The Hospital was "years ahead of its time," film historian David Thomson said.

[...] No films capture America's self-destructive ideallism so well. His screenplay for Network is often regarded as his masterpiece, and has been praised as "the kind of literate, humour, and remarkably accurate information that has prompted some to claim it as the twentieth century's greatest screenplay." "Chayefsky's early stories were often inspired by the author's childhood in The Bronx."

Chayefsky was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Television Hall of Fame in the inaugural class.

He was honoured three years after his death in 1984.

Early life

Sidney Chayefsky was born in Bronx, New York City, to Russian-Jewish immigrants Harry and Gussie (Stuchevsky) Chayefsky. Harry Chayefsky's father served in the Russian army for twenty-five years, so the family was able to live in Moscow, while Gussie Stuchevsky lived in a village near Odessa. In 1907 and 1909, Harry and Gussie emigrated to the United States.

Harry Chayefsky worked with a New Jersey milk processing business in which he later took a majority interest and renamed Dellwood Dairies. The family lived in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and Mount Vernon, New York, temporarily relocated to Bailey Avenue in the West Bronx at the time of Sidney Chayefsky's birth, although a larger house in Mount Vernon was being built. William and Winn were his two older brothers.

Chayefsky, a toddler, appeared to be gifted and could "speak clearly" at two and a half. During the 1929 Wall Street Crash, his father suffered a financial reversal, and the family moved back to the Bronx. Chayefsky attended a public elementary school. Chayefsky was known for his verbal skills as a child, which earned him friends. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, where he served as editor of the school's literary journal, "The Magpie." He graduated from Clinton at the age of 16 and attended the City College of New York in 1943, earning a degree in social sciences. He competed for the Kingsbridge Trojans, a semi-professional football team at City College. During his Army service, he studied languages at Fordham University.

Chayefsky was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe in 1943, two weeks before his graduation from City College. While serving in the Army, he adopted the nickname "Paddy." As he was awakened at dawn for kitchen service, the nickname was given spontaneously. Although he was actually Jewish, he had to be excused from attending Mass. "You do well, Paddy," the officer said, and the officer's name remained.

Chayefsky was wounded by a land mine while working with the 104th Infantry Division of the European Theatre near Aachen, Germany. He was given the Purple Heart. The injury left him seriously wounded, contributing to his anxiety around women. No T.O. wrote the book and lyrics to a musical comedy while recovering from his injuries in the Army Hospital near Cirencester, England. Love is a form of love. The Special Services Unit first appeared in 1945, and the display toured European Army bases for two years.

No T.O.'s official opening in London. The beginning of Chayefsky's theatrical career was written at Love at the Scala Theatre in the West End. Chayefsky and Joshua Logan, a potential collaborator, and Garson Kanin, who invited Chayefsky to collaborate with him on a film of the Allied invasion, The True Glory, a London production.

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Career

Chayefsky, who was heading to the United States, worked in Regal Press, his uncle's print shop, which gave him a background for his later television debut, Printer's Measure (1953), as well as his film As Young as You Feel (1951). Kanin encouraged Chayefsky to spend time on his second play, Put Them Together (later known as M is for Mother), but it was never produced. Mike Gordon and Jerry Bressler, both writers, sold him a junior writer's contract. He wrote The Great American Hoax, which sold to Good Housekeeping, but was never published.

Chayefsky began attending Hollywood in 1947 with the intention of becoming a screenwriter. Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon found him a job in Universal Pictures' accounting department. He trained at the Actor's Lab, and Kanin got him a little bit of the film A Double Life. He returned to New York, wrote scripts, and was hired as an apprentice script writer by Universal. His scripts were not accepted, and he was dismissed after six weeks. Chayefsky outlined the outline for a play that he submitted to the Wiilliam Morris Agency after returning to New York. The department, which is treating it as a novella, sent it to Good Housekeeping magazine, which is published. Twentieth Century Fox acquired movie rights, and Chayefsky was hired to write the script, and he returned to Hollywood in 1948. Chayefsky was dissatisfied with the studio method, which required rewrites and relegated writers to lower positions, so he resigned and moved to New York, promising not to return.

He began working full time on short stories and radio scripts in the late 1940s, and during that time, he was a gag writer for radio host Robert Q. Lewis. "I sold some plays to men who had the ability not to raise money," Chayefsky later explained.

Chayefsky produced adaptations for radio's Theater Guild on the Air, including James Stewart (with James Stewart), Cavalcade of America, Tommy (with Van Heflin and Ruth Gordon), and Over 21 (with Wally Cox).

Elia Kazan and his partner, Molly Kazan, assisted Chayefsky with revisions. It was renamed Fifth From Garibaldi but it was never made. The film As Young as You Feel was born in 1951 and was based on a Chayefsky tale.

With scripts for Danger, The Gulf Playhouse, and Manhunt, he transitioned to television. Fred Coe, a playhouse producer, watched the Danger and Manhunt episodes and hired Chayefsky to adapt the tale It Happened on the Brooklyn Subway about a photographer on a New York City Subway train that reunites a concentration camp survivor with his long-lost wife. Chayefsky's first script to be broadcast was a 1949 adaptation of Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? Philco is located in Philco.

He wrote Holiday Song, a telecast in 1952 and also in 1954, because he had always intended to use a synagogue as a backdrop. Printer's Measure, The Bachelor Party (1953), and The Big Deal (1953) are among his portfolios that have been submitted to Philco by the artist.

The seventh season of Philco Television Playhouse began in September 19, 1954 with E. G. Marshall and Eva Marie Saint in Chayefsky's Middle of the Night, a performance that was transferred to Broadway theaters 15 months later; in 1956, Middle of the Night opened on Broadway with Edward G. Robinson and Gena Rowlands, sparking a national tour. Kim Novak and Fredric March appeared on Columbia Pictures in 1959.

Chayefsky wrote Marty in 1953, which was premiered on The Philco Television Playhouse with Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand. Marty is about a good, hard-working Bronx butcher who is pining for the company of a woman in his life but who is not sure of ever finding true love in a marriage. Fate pairs him with Clara, a quiet schoolteacher who rescues him from the shame of being abandoned by her blind date in a local dance hall. The production, the actors, and Chayefsky's naturalistic dialogue received a lot of critical attention and influenced subsequent live television dramas.

When producer Harold Hecht tried to buy film rights for Marty for Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, Chayefsky was initially uninterested. Chayefsky, who was still bitter after his hospitalization years ago, requested creative control, advice on casting, and the same actor as in the TV version, Delbert Mann. Hecht was oblivious to all of Chayefsky's demands and named Chayefsky "associate producer" of the film. Chayefsky requested and was granted "co-director" status, so he could take over production if Mann was fired.

Clara's role was little different from the teleplay, but the screenplay was still unchanged, but Clara's role was expanded. Chayefsky was involved in all casting decisions and appeared in a cameo role, portraying one of Marty's closest friends, unseen in a car. Betsy Blair, the actress who appeared in Clara, had a difficult time due to her links with left-wing causes, and United Artists demanded that she be barred from appearing. Chayefsky refused, and her husband Gene Kelly volunteered on her behalf. Blair stayed in the role.

The studio stopped production in September 1954, shortly after the majority of the film had been shot. From the start, producer Harold Hecht encountered resistance to Burt Lancaster's Marty project, with Lancaster "only tolerating" it. The film had a modest advertising budget. But reports were overwhelmingly positive, and the film received the Palme d'Or Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, thus boosting Chayefsky's career.

Chayefsky, after his success with Marty, went on to write for television and theater as well as films. During the second season of The Great American Fox Hour, Chayefsky's The Great American Hoax was broadcast on May 15, 1957.

United Artists and The Catered Affair were purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who purchased his TV show The Bachelor Party. MGM hired Gore Vidal to write the screenplay, while Chayefsky wrote the Bachelor Party. Catered Affair did well in Europe but not so well in American theaters, and it wasn't a hit.

The Bachelor Party was budgeted at $750,000, twice Marty's budget, but it was received far less recognition and was seen as artistically inferior by United Artists. Sweet Smell of Prosperity, a Hecht-Hill-Lancaster film, was also promoted by the studio, which the studio thought would be more effective. The Bachelor Party was a commercial failure, and no one made a buck.

Chayefsky wrote a film version of his Broadway play Middle of the Night, originally starring Marilyn Monroe in the female lead role. Kim Novak was given the opportunity on the show. He also started working on The Goddess, the tale of a movie star resembling Monroe's ascension and demise. Kim Stanley, the Goddess's actress, slammed the film and refused to advertise it. During the film's making, Chayefsky served as both a producer and a screenwriter. Chayefsky refused to change any part of the script despite her requests. Arthur Miller, Monroe's husband, believed that the film was based on his wife's life and protested to Chayefsky. Chayefsky's script received rave reviews, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role. The film, according to a New York Herald Tribune reviewer, is "a significant advancement in Chayefsky's career."

Chayefsky denied that the film was based on Monroe for years, but Chayefsky's biographer Shaun Considine insists that the film "captured her longing and agony" accurately portrays her longing and apprehension.

Chayefsky began adapting Middle of the Night as a film in 1958, but he decided not to use Edward G.Robinson, the Broadway version, with whom he had clashed, but instead chose Frederic March. Elizabeth Taylor had intended to appear in the female lead but then had to cancel. Kim Novak was actually cast in the role. The film was chosen as the American entry to the Cannes Film Festival, but critiques were mixed and the film had just a short run in theaters.

The Tenth Man (1959) marked Chayefsky's second Broadway revival, receiving Tony Award nominations for Best Play, Best Director (Tyrone Guthrie) and Best Scenic Design, as a result of his 1960 Tony Award nomination. Guthrie received another award for Chayefsky's Gideon, as did actor Fredric March. The Passion of Josef D, Chayefsky's last Broadway performance, attracted critical praise but it only lasted for 15 performances.

Despite the fact that Chayefsky was a young writer for television, he eventually left it, "decrying the networks' inability toward quality programming." As a result, he often toyed with the prospect of lampooning the television industry throughout his career, as he did with Network.

Although Chayefsky intended only to do original screenplays, producer Martin Ransohoff convinced William Bradford Huie's 1959 novel The Americanization of Emily (1964), which was eventually shot with the book's name. The novel was set in the early 1900s, before the Normandy landings during World War II, with a love story at the center of the plot. Chayefsky confessed to adapting the book, but only if he could fundamentally change the story. He made the titular character more advanced, but he refused to be "Americanized" by accepting material products.

William Wyler was first hired as the director, but Chayefsky's relationship with him deteriorated as he tried to change the script. William Holden was initially cast in the male lead, but Capucine triggered friction when he demanded that Julie Andrews be replaced by his then-girlfriend, Capucine. James Garner, a natural comedian with sophisticated dialogue but originally intended to appear in a supporting role, was fired Holden and delivered a critically acclaimed performance, though James Coburn took over the role originally intended for Garner. Both James Garner and Julie Andrews also stated that The Americanization of Emily was their all-time favorite film of their own creation. The film opened in August 1964 to rave reviews, but it was ultimately a box office loss, perhaps due to the Vietnam War's highly polar antiwar position. In the middle of its debut, the studio changed the name to Emily...she's super! To avoid confusing part of the public with a seven-syllable word in the title, the goal is to avoid confusing part of the public with a seven-syllable word in the title. The film has since been praised as a "vanguard anti-war film."

Emily and Josef D.'s defection on Broadway shook Chayefsky's confidence, and it was the start of what Shaun Considine's biographer describes as a "fallow period." He agreed to do novel adaptations, which he had previously shunned, and was hired to adapt Richard Jessup's "The Cincinnati Kid." Sam Peckinpah's script was rejected, and Chayefsky was fired after Chayefsky was fired. Norman Jewison replaced Peckinpah shortly after the film was released.

Chayefsky spent time on adapting Huie's book Three Lives for Mississippi about three civil rights activists in 1964, and was hired in 1967 to adapt the Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. After delivering a script that Alan Jay Lerner, the playwright and producer, felt lacked "a musical structure," he was kicked out of the film. Chayefsky was renamed screenwriter, but he remained as adapter.

In 1969 and 1970, there were no claims between 1969 and 1970. Chayefsky began considering a film that would be set in the midst of widespread civil strife. Susan Garza, the husband of Susan Pearson, who received poor treatment at a hospital, pitched a tale based at a hospital to United Artists. Simcha Productions was formed to ensure that he had the same creative influence as playwrights, as he was named after the Hebrew version of his given name, Sidney. He then began to study, reading medical books, and visiting hospitals.

Dr. Herbert Bock, the film's leading character, featured several of Chayefsky's personal traits. Bock had been a "boy genius" who was bitter and that his life was over. Bock's film, in which Bock says he is ill and considering suicide, was rewritten verbatim from a discussion that Chayefsky had with a business associate at the time.

During the film's making, Chayefsky's long speeches for Bock and other characters, who were later praised by critics, met resistance from United Artists executives. The script was described as "too talky" and as full of unnecessary medical terms. However, Chayefsky, the producer, ruled, but Chayefsky, the designer, ruled. He also vetoed the studio's proposal that Walter Matthau or Burt Lancaster be drafted for the lead role, insisting on Scott. Chayefsky participated in the discussion with Diana Rigg, the female lead, but Scott dismissed his participation.

Chayefsky narrated the first narration after several actors were turned down for the role after filming. It was supposed to be temporary, but it became the one that was used in the film. Despite some initial critiques being critical, leading analysts were enthusiastic about the film, and it was also a box office success. Chayefsky's career was revived after he received an Academy Award for his script.

Chayefsky believed that television news had desensitized viewers to violence and murder, and he was shocked one day when a respected news anchorman "rattled off inanities." The Chancellor asked his friend, the NBC News anchor John Chancellor, if an anchorman could go crazy on the air, and the Chancellor replied, "Every day." Chayefsky had written the rough draft of a script, focusing on an old, disillusioned anchor who has announced suicide on the air within a week of that discussion. Christine Chubbuck, a local news anchor, died during a broadcast in 1974.

Chayefsky researched the issue by watching hours of television and consulting with NBC executive David Tebet, who allowed Chayefsky to attend programming meetings. He did more research at CBS and talked with Walter Cronkite later this year. The finished script reflected his study and his personal belief that Arabs were "buying up" US firms, which was prevalent at the time. The "mad as hell" address was a deeply personal statement expressing Chayefsky's convictions in the early 1970s. Chayefsky later called it a simple sentence to write, echoing his conviction that people had the right to be mad.

Because of film company worries that it was too heavy on television, the script had a difficult time. The film was ultimately decided that it would be a joint venture between MGM and United Artists, with Chayefsky having complete creative control. In July 1975, the agreement was announced. George C. Scott was given the role of Max Schumacher but was turned down, and William Holden was given the opportunity. Chayefsky refused requests from UA and MGM that the film be "softer" ending, fearing that ending with the Howard Beale character assassinated would alienate viewers.

Outside of the usual critical and box office critiques from television network film critics, Chayefsky earned his third Academy Award and first solo recipient of a screenwriting Oscar, and Billy Wilder (Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett, Woody Allen, and Billy Wilder) received at least one of their honors with co-writers; all three-time winners (Francis Ford Coppola) received at least one of their awards (Francis When Peter Finch was honoured with Best Actor, Chayefsky, he was to accept on his behalf, but he had to summon Finch's wife Eletha to the stage to accept the accolade.

The film is said to have "prescribed the emergence of reality television by twenty years" and was a "sardonic satire" of television industry, dealing with the "dehumanization of modern life."

After Network Chayefsky began to request a film based on John Reed's life and his book Ten Days That Shook the World, Chayefsky explored Warren Beatty's offer to write a film based on his life. He promised to do research and spent three months researching the Beatty film Reds, which would later be called the Beatty film Reds. Beatty's attorneys' talks fell apart.

Chayefsky began working on a project that delves into "man's quest for his authentic self" in the spring of 1977. The idea's source was a joking competition between Bob Fosse and Herb Gardner. In which Kong becomes a movie star, the three devised a parody scheme to reimagine King Kong. Chayefsky was interested in investigating the human spirit's origins. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's theme was turned into a project that needed to be updated.

Chayefsky conducted research on genetic mutations, consulting with physicians and scholars of anthropology and human genetics. He then sketched out a rough outline of a tale in which the lead protagonist immerses himself in a lonely tank, and that with the help of hallucinogens, the protagonist character will regresses to become a prehistoric creature. Chayefsky wrote an eighty-seven page book and turned it into a book at the suggestion of Columbia executive Daniel Melnick.

Columbia Pictures acquired film rights for nearly $1 million, with the same creative control and financial terms as for Network. Chayefsky suffered a lot from stress while writing the book, resulting in a heart attack in 1977. The heart attack culminated in stringent dietary and lifestyle restrictions. HarperCollins published Altered States in June 1978 and received mixed feedback. Chayefsky did not endorse the book, because it was merely a blueprint for the screenplay.

Chayefsky was involved in the pick of William Hurt and Blair Brown as the leads because his job gave him creative control. Arthur Penn was initially hired as director but then he was forced to resign after differences with Chayefsky. Ken Russell had to be recalled.

Chayefsky made it clear that he would not allow no input into the discussion or story, which Russell found was too "soppy." Russell was certain he'd get rid of Chayefsky, but he discovered that "the monkey on my back was always there and wouldn't let go." Russell was courteous and deferential prior to production, but after rehearsals started in 1979, "began to regard Paddy as a nonentity" and was "mean and sarcastic," according to film's producer Howard Gottfried, who called Russell a "duplicit, mean man."

Chayefsky had the ability to fire Russell, but Gottfried told him he could only do so if he took over direction himself. He left for New York and began to oversee production. The actors were not allowed to change the dialogue. Chayefsky said later that the actors were expected to speak their lines after eating or talking too fast. Russell said that Chayefsky's idea was the rapid pace and interlocking dialogue.

Chayefsky departed from the filming of his screenplay and took his name off the credits, replacing the pseudonym Sidney Aaron.

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