John Sayles

Last updated

John Sayles
John Sayles.jpg
Sayles in March 2008
Born
John Thomas Sayles

(1950-09-28) September 28, 1950 (age 74)
Education Williams College
Occupations
  • Director
  • screenwriter
  • editor
  • actor
  • novelist
Years active1971–present

John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He is known for writing and directing the films The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), Passion Fish (1992), The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), Lone Star (1996), and Men with Guns (1997).

Contents

For Eight Men Out, Sayles was nominated for the USC Scripter Award. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish and Lone Star. At the 56th Golden Globe Awards, Men with Guns was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His directorial debut, Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), as well as Matewan were added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1997 and 2023, respectively.

Early life

Sayles was born on September 28, 1950, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary (née Rausch), a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. [1] Both of Sayles's parents were Catholic and of half-Irish descent. Sayles has referred to himself as a "Catholic atheist". [2] He attended Williams College with frequent collaborators Gordon Clapp and David Strathairn, as well as his longtime partner, Maggie Renzi. Sayles earned a B.A. in psychology in 1972. [3]

Career

After college, Sayles moved to Boston where he worked a variety of blue-collar jobs while writing short stories for The Atlantic . [3] These writings culminated in his first novel, The Pride of the Bimbos , published in 1975.

Like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, Sayles began his film career working with Roger Corman. He was discovered by Frances Doel. Sayles has been called "the greatest screenwriter to ever work at New World." [4]

Directorial debut

In 1979, Sayles used $30,000 he earned writing scripts for Corman to fund his first film, Return of the Secaucus 7 . [5] To make the film on a limited budget, he set the film in a large house so that he did not have to travel to or get permits for different locations, set the story over a three-day weekend to limit costume changes, and wrote about people his age so he could cast his friends in it. The film received near-unanimous critical acclaim at the time and has held its reputation. In November 1997, the National Film Preservation Board announced that Return of the Secaucus 7 would be one of the 25 films selected that year for preservation in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

In 1983, after the films Baby It's You (starring Rosanna Arquette) and Lianna (a story in which a married woman becomes discontented with her marriage and falls in love with another woman), Sayles received a MacArthur Fellowship. He put the money into the science fiction feature The Brother from Another Planet , [6] a film about a three-toed humanoid who escapes bondage on another world and crash-lands in New York harbor; because he is Africanoid in appearance, he finds himself at home among the people of Harlem, being pursued by European-looking alien enslavers men in black.

Sayles at the Miami Book Fair International, 2011 Sayles, John IMGP2516-A.jpg
Sayles at the Miami Book Fair International, 2011

In 1989, Sayles created and wrote the pilot episode for the short-lived television show Shannon's Deal about a down-and-out Philadelphia lawyer played by Jamey Sheridan. Sayles received a 1990 Edgar Award for his teleplay for the pilot. The show ran for 16 episodes before being cancelled in 1991.

Sayles has funded most of his films by writing genre scripts, such as Piranha , Alligator , The Howling , and The Challenge . [7] Having collaborated with Joe Dante on Piranha and The Howling, Sayles acted in Dante's movie, Matinee . Sayles gets the rest of his funding by working as a script doctor; he did rewrites for Apollo 13 [8] and Mimic .

A genre script, called Night Skies , inspired what would eventually become the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial . [9] That film's director, Steven Spielberg, later commissioned Sayles to write a script (unused) for the fourth Jurassic Park film.

He has written and directed his own films, including Lone Star , Passion Fish , Eight Men Out , The Secret of Roan Inish, and Matewan . He serves on the advisory board for the Austin Film Society. [10] Maggie Renzi has been John Sayles's long-time companion (and collaborator), but they have not married. Renzi has produced most of his films since Lianna. They met as students at Williams College.

Sayles works with a regular repertory of actors, most notably Chris Cooper, David Strathairn, and Gordon Clapp, each of whom has appeared in at least four of his films.

In early 2003, Sayles signed the Not In Our Name "Statement of Conscience" (along with Noam Chomsky, Steve Earle, Brian Eno, Jesse Jackson, Viggo Mortensen, Bonnie Raitt, Oliver Stone, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon and others) which opposed the invasion of Iraq. [11]

In February 2009, Sayles was reported to be writing an HBO series based on the early life of Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The drama, tentatively titled Scar Tissue [ needs update ], centers on Kiedis's early years living in West Hollywood with his father. At that time, Kiedis's father, known as Spider, sold drugs (according to legend, his clients included The Who and Led Zeppelin) and mingled with rock stars on the Sunset Strip, all while aspiring to get into show business. [12]

In February 2010, Sayles began shooting his 17th feature film, the historical war drama Amigo , in the Philippines. The film is a fictional account of events during the Philippine–American War, with a cast that includes Joel Torre, Chris Cooper, and Garret Dillahunt. [13]

His novel A Moment in the Sun, set during the same period as Amigo, in the Philippines, Cuba, and the U.S., was released in 2011 by McSweeney's. It includes an account of the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 in North Carolina, the only coup d'état in United States history in which a duly elected government was overthrown. [14]

Legacy and honors

Filmography

Film

YearTitleDirectorWriterEditor
1978 Piranha NoYesNo
1979 The Lady in Red NoYesNo
1980 Return of the Secaucus 7 YesYesYes
Battle Beyond the Stars NoYesNo
Alligator NoYesNo
1981 The Howling NoYesNo
1982 The Challenge NoYesNo
1983 Lianna YesYesYes
Baby It's You YesYesNo
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute NoYesNo
1984 The Brother from Another Planet YesYesYes
1986 The Clan of the Cave Bear NoYesNo
1987 Wild Thing NoYesNo
Matewan YesYesNo
1988 Eight Men Out YesYesNo
1989 Breaking In NoYesNo
1991 City of Hope YesYesYes
1992 Passion Fish YesYesYes
1994 The Secret of Roan Inish YesYesYes
Men of War NoYesNo
1995 Apollo 13 NoUncreditedNo
1996 Lone Star YesYesYes
1997 Men with Guns YesYesYes
1999 Limbo YesYesYes
2002 Sunshine State YesYesYes
2003 Casa de los babys YesYesYes
2004 Silver City YesYesYes
2007 Honeydripper YesYesYes
2008 The Spiderwick Chronicles NoYesNo
2010 Amigo YesYesYes
2013 Go for Sisters YesYesYes
2018The Devil's HighwayNoYesNo

Acting roles

YearTitleRole
1980 Return of the Secaucus 7 Howie
1983 Lianna Jerry
1984 The Brother from Another Planet Man in Black #2
1986 Something Wild Motorcycle Cop
1987 Matewan Hardshell Preacher
1988 Eight Men Out Ring Lardner
1991 City of Hope Carl
1992 Passion Fish Soap Doctor
1993 Matinee Bob
1996 Gridlock'd Cop
2009 In the Electric Mist Michael Goldman
2012 The Normals Dr. Marx

Television

Bibliography

Novels

Collections and non-fiction

Music videos

Awards/nominations

Films

Awards for Honeydripper:

Award for Silver City:

Awards for Sunshine State:

Awards for Limbo:

Awards for Men with Guns/Hombres armados:

Awards for Lone Star:

Awards for The Secret of Roan Inish:

Awards for Passion Fish:

Awards for City of Hope:

Awards for Matewan:

Awards for The Brother from Another Planet:

Awards for Return of the Secaucus 7:

Other recognition

Sayles's first published story, "I-80 Nebraska", won an O. Henry Award; his novel, Union Dues, was nominated for a National Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award.

In 1983, [34] Sayles received the John D. MacArthur Award, given to 20 Americans in diverse fields each year for their innovative work. He has also been the recipient of the Eugene V. Debs Award, the John Steinbeck Award and the John Cassavetes Award. He was honored with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Writers Guild of America (1999).

Recurring collaborators

Actors who have regularly worked with Sayles include Maggie Renzi, David Strathairn, Joe Morton, Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell, Vincent Spano, Kevin Tighe, Josh Mostel, Tom Wright, Gordon Clapp and Angela Bassett. [35]

Work
Actor
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Return of the Secaucus 7
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Bill Cobbs Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Chris Cooper Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Liane Alexandra Curtis Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Vondie Curtis-Hall Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Richard Edson Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Miguel Ferrer Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Kathryn Grody Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Lisa Gay Hamilton Black x.svgBlack x.svg
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Clifton James Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
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Perry Lang Black x.svgBlack x.svg
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Mary McDonnell Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Sam McMurray Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Joe Morton Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Josh Mostel Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Bill Raymond Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Maggie Renzi Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
John SaylesBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Vincent Spano Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Mary Steenburgen Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Fisher Stevens Black x.svgBlack x.svg
David Strathairn Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Kevin Tighe Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg
Ralph Waite Black x.svgBlack x.svg
Tom Wright Black x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svgBlack x.svg

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<i>Return of the Secaucus 7</i> 1980 film directed by John Sayles

Return of the Secaucus 7 is a 1980 American independent drama film written and directed by John Sayles and starring Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, David Strathairn, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp, and Jean Passanante, and others. The film tells the story of seven friends who spend a weekend together in New Hampshire. The weekend is marred by the break-up of a relationship between two of the friends. This causes a ripple effect among the group and brings up old desires and problems.

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Passion Fish is a 1992 American drama film written and directed by John Sayles. The film stars Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Vondie Curtis-Hall, David Strathairn, Leo Burmester, and Angela Bassett. It tells the story of a soap opera star (McDonnell), who after getting paralyzed in a car accident, is forced to return to her family home and rely upon a series of nurses, forcing each of them to leave her employment until one shows up guaranteed to stay.

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References

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