The Oscar-winning screenwriter who also shot three films "Spider-Man" turned 92 – Deadline

Alvin Sargent, who won the Oscars in Writing Ordinary people and Julia and was nominated for Moon paper, died of natural causes in Seattle. Sargent also won the WGA awards for these three films and received the guild's honor of career, the Laurel Award for scriptwriting, in 1991.

Sargent has written more than two dozen feature film scripts from the 1960s to the 2010s, most recently The amazing spider-man (2012) Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). His feature credits also include What about Bob? (1991) Money of other peoples (1991) and Unfaithful (2002).

He began his screenwriting career on television, writing episodes of a 1960s drama series. Ben Casey, Route 66, Alfred Hitchcock time and Save who can. He has also written episodes of ABC's short life. Moon paper Derived series in which Jodie Foster played the role that earned Tatum O 'Neal an Oscar for supporting actress.

Born April 12, 1927 in Philadelphia, Sargent worked as an advertising salesman at Variety in the early 1950s, while aspiring to act. He had been working for three weeks when he was asked to play a non-speaking role in a short film entitled From here until eternity. The pub specialized in cinema gave him a break to shoot the film. When director Fred Zinnemann was not happy with another actor, Sargent was ordered to replace him. His character would announce the beginning of the Second World War and his first American victim.

Julia

Zinnemann will win the Oscar for Best Director for this classic film, which also won the Best Film Award and six other Oscars. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Sargent wrote Julia (1977), which earned him his first Oscar and the seventh Zinnemann Award for Best Director. He starred Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave and Hal Holbrook and introduced Meryl Streep to moviegoers.

After his passage on From here until eternity, Sargent returned to Variety but it turned out rather ugly by selling ads. During his off-hours, he was writing stories in his basement, a friend of whom had sent Agent Sam Adams. The young scribe got a writing job on television and Sargent wrote the screenplay. Then he did not hear Adams or anyone else in Hollywood for more than a year.

On Christmas Eve 1961, Sargent received an unexpected call. It was Adams who asked if the scribe could do an emergency rewrite for one of the writers on vacation from the long CBS series. General Electric Theater. Sargent delivered the rewrite four days later and never spent another day as an unemployed writer. His last script was for The amazing spider-manthat he finished at 85 years old.

Ordinary people

Sargent won his second Oscar for Ordinary people, a dramatic set about the sorrow of a family at the death of a son who puts their relationships to a severe test. With Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton, he would also win the award for best film and best director for Robert Redford.

Meanwhile, he also wrote elements such as Gambit (1966), The effect of gamma rays on the worries of humans in the moon (1972), Bobby Deerfield (1974) Right time (1978) Dominick and Eugene (1988), False (1996) and No matter where except here (1999), among others.

Sargent would have told all the scribes: "When I die, I will write on my tombstone," Finally a plot "."

His older brother was prolific comedian Herb Sargent, one of the first members of the Saturday Night Live staff who co-created "Weekend Update" with Chevy Chase, won several Emmys and also wrote for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Herb Sargent died in 2005.

Alvin Sargent was married to Joan Camden from 1953 to 1975. He was then married to the producer and co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer, Laura Ziskin, until his death in 2011. The survivors include the girls Jennifer Sargent and Amanda Sargent, several grandchildren and grandchild, as well as Ziskin's daughter, Julia Barry.

A memorial service will be held in Los Angeles, but no date has been announced. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting contributions to Stand up to Cancer, co-founded by Laura Ziskin in 2008.