Nancy Dowd

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Nancy Dowd
Born1945 (age 79–80)
Framingham, Massachusetts
Occupation Screenwriter
Nationality American
Alma mater Smith College, UCLA
Notable works Slap Shot (1977)
Coming Home (1978)
Notable awards Academy Award
Best Original Screenplay
1979 Coming Home

Nancy Dowd (born 1945) is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter whose credits include the films Slap Shot and Coming Home . [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Dowd was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, the daughter of wealthy machine tool plant operator. She graduated from Smith College and spent her junior year at the Sorbonne. At Smith she became friends with Molly Ivins, to whom she would later send copies of her screenplays for Ivins to read. [2] After graduation she taught English in Tokyo and worked for a time as a beer hall hostess. She later attended the UCLA Film School [3] earning a master's degree, [2] and worked as a student assistant to the director King Vidor. [3]

Career

Dowd's first screenplay, commissioned by Jane Fonda, was an antiwar story about a returning Vietnam War veteran titled "Buffalo Ghost." The script was turned over to Waldo Salt and was filmed as Coming Home . In a 1977 New York Times interview, Dowd called the new version of the screenplay "terrible." [3]

Her brother Ned Dowd inspired [4] the story behind Slap Shot based on his experiences playing minor league hockey. Ned and his wife, Nancy N. Dowd, both appeared in the film. [5]

She wrote lyrics for a song used in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains , another film she wrote.

Dowd often uses pseudonyms such as Rob Morton or Ernest Morton, or simply writes films without being officially credited.[ citation needed ]

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ Hamill, Sean D. (12 April 2010). "Nancy Dowd". The New York Times.
  2. 1 2 Minutaglio, Bill; Smith, W. Michael (2009). Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life. New York: PublicAffairs. pp. 73–74. ISBN   978-1-58648-717-1.
  3. 1 2 3 Klemesrud, Judy (1977-03-03). "Author Says Her 'Slap Shot'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-05-27.
  4. ↑ "Slap Shot Is 30! | GoonBlog.com". 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
  5. ↑ Jackson, Jonathon (2010). The Making of Slap Shot: Behind the Scenes of the Greatest Hockey Movie Ever Made. Wiley. p. 106. ISBN   9780470678008 . Retrieved 2020-01-24.
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