William James Royce | |
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| Occupation | Playwright/Director Screenwriter Novelist |
| Genre | Comedy, Mystery |
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| Author | William James Royce |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Humor |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Pages | 140 |
| ISBN | 978-1-46999-737-7 |
William James Royce is an American playwright/director, screenwriter, and novelist.
William Royce began his television career writing for the NBC television series In the Heat of the Night , starring Emmy Award winning actor Carroll O'Connor as Chief William O. Gillespie and Academy Award nominee Howard Rollins as Detective Virgil Tibbs. Royce wrote 22 episodes while serving as Executive Story Editor, a position he inherited from writer Matt Harris (Carroll O'Connor). [1] [2] In 1991, Royce wrote the screenplay, as well as the music and lyrics, for the award winning episode entitled, Sweet, Sweet Blues , inspired by the real life saga of Medgar Evers. [3] [4] That season In the Heat of the Night won its first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Dramatic Series. [5] In 1994, after the seventh season, Royce left the show to write for Dick Van Dyke on the mystery series Diagnosis: Murder , and later for the Emmy Award winning mystery series Murder, She Wrote starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. [6] [7]
William Royce's first full-length play as writer/director was the romantic comedy A Fine Romance which had its world premiere in Los Angeles at the Actor's Theatre in 1984. [8] In her critique, Polly Warfield of Back Stage West wrote, "Well, just go ahead and revel... Glamour, airy sophistication, elan, romance: If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you like. What more does anyone need?" [9]
Royce's most recent production was his adaptation of the classic Pierre Beaumarchais comedy The Marriage of Figaro entitled, One Mad Day! which premiered at the Norton Clapp Theatre in 2008. [10] The adaptation saw numerous changes to the original five-act play, altering its structure to three acts, updating the dialogue and presenting the new production as a "screwball comedy." In classic screwball comedy tradition, Suzanne has been made the central character. [11] Although Figaro is still in the employ of the Count, he has been promoted from valet to Jester. Perhaps the biggest change comes in the third act when Figaro's Gypsy family arrive for "Figgie's" wedding! [12] [13]
William Royce’s first collection of humorous essays, short stories, sketches and cartoons entitled, I Know Why the Caged Pig Oinks ~ And Other Love Stories was published by Chanticleer Publishing in May 2012. The book is dedicated to the memory of Royce’s childhood friend, James Whearty. As stated on the dust-jacket: When the author learned that his childhood friend had ALS, he offered to do anything he could to help. “Write,” Jim replied. “Make me laugh.” This book, representing the comic side of Tuesdays with Morrie , is the author’s attempt to repay his friend for a lifetime of laughter. [14]
Royce's first novel, The Immaculate Deception, A Tom Sullivan Mystery, was published in September 2011. This neo-noir mystery series features ex-cop turned private investigator Tom Sullivan and his cat, Stella. The story begins in the confessional booth of a church in Southern California as Tom Sullivan makes what appears to be his final confession. Quickly losing blood from a bullet in his side, Sullivan tells his story, confessing to the murder he has just committed and revealing the identity of the person who may have murdered him. The mystery Sullivan unravels takes him from the beaches of Malibu to the grand estates in San Marino to a dimly-lit jazz club in Santa Monica to a ritzy fertility clinic in Beverly Hills, ultimately exposing what is perhaps the first case of "embryo-napping." [15]
Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged, and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.
In the Heat of the Night is an American police procedural crime drama television series loosely based on the 1967 film and 1965 novel of the same title that starred Carroll O'Connor as police chief Bill Gillespie and Howard Rollins as police detective Virgil Tibbs and was broadcast on NBC from March 6, 1988-May 19, 1992 before moving to CBS, where it aired from October 28, 1992-May 16, 1995. Its executive producers were O'Connor, Fred Silverman and Juanita Bartlett. This series marked O'Connor's return to a series for the first time since the All in the Family spinoff Archie Bunker's Place ended in 1983.
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury was a British and American actress. In a career spanning 80 years, she played various roles across film, stage, and television. Although based for much of her life in the United States, her work attracted international attention.
Murder, She Wrote is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series focuses on the life of Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer and amateur detective, who becomes involved in solving murders that take place in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine, across the United States, and abroad. The program ran for 12 seasons from September 30, 1984, to May 19, 1996, for a total of 264 episodes and included amongst its recurring cast Tom Bosley, William Windom and Ron Masak, as well as a vast array of guest cast members including Michael Horton, Keith Michell and Julie Adams.
Thomas Edward Bosley was an American actor, television personality and entertainer. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984) for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nomination. Bosley also did a variety of voiceover work such as playing the lead character in the animated series Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, and the narrator of the syndicated film history documentary series That's Hollywood. He's also known for his role as Sheriff Amos Tupper in the Angela Lansbury lead CBS mystery series Murder, She Wrote (1984–1988), and as the title character in the NBC/ABC series Father Dowling Mysteries (1989–1991).
Dorothy Loudon was an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1977 for her performance as Miss Hannigan in Annie. Loudon was also nominated for Tony Awards for her lead performances in the musicals The Fig Leaves Are Falling and Ballroom, as well as a Golden Globe award for her appearances on The Garry Moore Show.
William Windom was an American actor. He was known as a character actor of the stage and screen. He is well known for his recurring role as Dr. Seth Hazlitt alongside Angela Lansbury in the CBS mystery series Murder, She Wrote.
The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the William Tell Overture for the opening scenes. Typical of a Sturges film, the pacing and dialogue of The Palm Beach Story are very fast. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures.
The Marriage of Figaro is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second in the Figaro trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville and followed by The Guilty Mother.
Michael Sarrazin was a Canadian actor. His most notable film was They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.
Ken Ludwig may well be the most performed playwright of his generation. He has had six productions on Broadway and eight in London’s West End. His 34 plays and musicals are staged throughout the United States and around the world every night of the year. They have been produced in over 20 languages in more than 30 countries, and many have become standards of the American repertoire.
William Theodore Link was an American film and television screenwriter and producer who often worked in collaboration with Richard Levinson.
Richard Leighton Levinson was an American screenwriter and producer who often worked in collaboration with William Link.
Simon Robson is a British actor, director and writer.
William M. Nicholson is a sound re-recording mixer at NBC Universal studios in Los Angeles, California. During his lengthy career, he has received numerous awards and nominations, including 5 Emmy awards, 22 Emmy nominations, 2 Cinema Audio Society nominations, and an Academy Award nomination for Martin Scorsese's 1980 film Raging Bull. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Craig Rice was an American writer of mystery novels and short stories, described by book critic Bill Ruehlmann as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction, she wrote the binge and lived the hangover."
Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA) is an American film production company specializing in the production, acquisition and distribution of low-budget films.
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone is a 1950 comedy/murder mystery film set on board a train. It stars Marjorie Main and James Whitmore. It is based on the short story "Once Upon a Train " by Stuart Palmer and Craig Rice.
Etienne Girardot was a diminutive stage and film actor of Anglo-French parentage born in London, England.
"Sweet, Sweet Blues" is an episode of the NBC drama series In the Heat of the Night, starring Carroll O'Connor as Chief Bill Gillespie and Howard Rollins as Detective Virgil Tibbs. In the Heat of the Night was based on the 1965 novel by John Ball, which was also the basis for the Academy Award winning film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, directed by Norman Jewison.
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