Bo Goldman, who penned the Oscar-winning scripts for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Melvin And Howard, has died aged 90.
The screenwriter’s son-in-law director Todd Field confirmed on Thursday that the award-winner had passed away on Tuesday in Helendale, California. No details on the cause of death were given.
Goldman found success in Hollywood later in his career after years of struggle as a playwright and it was in his 40s that he landed his first film credit when he adapted Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975.
The film, which starred Jack Nicholson as a patient in a psychiatric ward, won best picture at the Academy Awards, while Goldman – along with Lawrence Hauben – picked up best adapted screenplay at the cinematic event.
Goldman continued to win gold as five years on he was awarded the Oscar for Melvin And Howard. The movie was based on a luckless Utah gas station owner named Melvin Dummar who claimed to be a beneficiary of Howard Hughes after the billionaire’s death.
While 1992’s Scent of Woman landed Goldman his third Oscar nomination. The film, which was adapted from the 1974 Italian movie of the same name, starred Al Pacino and Chris O’Donnell.
It follows a young college student who goes to earn money by looking after a knowledgeable blind war veteran while his family is away. The film contributed to Goldman being considered a master of screenwriting.
The American writer also wrote the family drama Shoot The Moon, Little Nikita with Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix as well as The Rose, which starred Bette Midler.
When asked by The Washington Post about his career in 1982, Goldman said he thought of himself as a dramatist who happened to write screenplays, saying: “I’m a screenplaywright.
“If there is a train of thought that runs through my work, it is a yearning, a longing to make the people real and capture their lives on the screen.
“I think there is nothing more fulfilling in the world than to see your view of life realised in art. For me, film is unique – it has a peculiar quality for recreating life. I find life so wonderful, that to try to capture it in art is like trying to catch starlight.”
Goldman, who lived in Rockport, Maine, lost a son, Jesse, in 1981 and his wife died in 2017. He is survived by four daughters, a son, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
