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Robert Bolt | |
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| Born | (1924-08-15)15 August 1924 |
| Died | 20 February 1995(1995-02-20) (aged 70) Chichester,Sussex, England |
| Education | Manchester Grammar School;University of Manchester;University of Exeter |
| Notable works |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
Robert Oxton BoltCBE (15 August 1924 – 20 February 1995) was an English playwright and a screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays forLawrence of Arabia,Doctor Zhivago, andA Man for All Seasons, the latter two of which won him theAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
He was born inSale, Cheshire, to Methodist parents; his father owned a small furniture shop.[1] AtManchester Grammar School his affinity for SirThomas More first developed. After leaving school aged sixteen, he worked in an insurance office, which he disliked; after studying in the evening for five weeks he passed three A-levels and went on to attend theUniversity of Manchester, from which, after a year, he undertook wartime service, initially as a pilot officer candidate in theRAF (air-sickness preventing him from continuing past training) from 1943 to 1946. He then served as an Army officer in West Africa until 1947, when he returned to the University of Manchester and spent three years completing his honours degree in history.[2] Following this, he took a teaching diploma from theUniversity of Exeter.[3] For many years he taught in theEnglish and History departments atMillfield School and only became a full-time writer at the age of 33 when his playThe Flowering Cherry was staged in London in 1958, withCelia Johnson andRalph Richardson.
He first earned notice for his original playA Man for All Seasons – a depiction of Sir Thomas More's clash with KingHenry VIII over his divorce fromCatherine of Aragon – which won awards on the stage and in its film version, though subsequently most of his writing was screenplays for films or television.
Bolt's writing included primarily dramatic works that placed their protagonists in tension with the prevailing society. He won praise forA Man for All Seasons, his first iteration of this theme, but he developed it in his existential script forLawrence of Arabia (1962). InLawrence, he succeeded where several before him had failed at turningT. E. Lawrence'sSeven Pillars of Wisdom into a cogent screenplay by transforming the entire book into a search for the identity of its author, presenting Lawrence as a misfit both in English and Arab society.
It was at this time that Bolt himself fell foul of the law, and as part of theCommittee of 100 he was arrested and imprisoned for protesting against nuclear proliferation. He refused to be "bound over" (i.e., to sign a declaration that he would not engage in such activities again) and was sentenced to one month in prison because of this.[4]Sam Spiegel, the producer ofLawrence, persuaded Bolt to sign after he had served only two weeks. Bolt later regretted his actions and did not speak to Spiegel again after the film was completed.
Later inDoctor Zhivago, Bolt investedBoris Pasternak's novel with his own characteristic sense of narrative and dialogue – human, short and telling.The Bounty was Bolt's first project after a stroke, which resulted in some loss of speech and partial paralysis. In it,Fletcher Christian takes the "Lawrence" role of a man in tension with his society who in the process loses touch with his own identity.The Mission was Bolt's final film project, and it once again represented his thematic preoccupations, this time with 18th-centuryJesuits in South America.
Bolt's final produced script wasPolitical Animal, later made into the TV movieWithout Warning: The James Brady Story (1991), about the attempted assassination ofRonald Reagan and the struggles of his press secretaryJames Brady to recover from a near-fatal gunshot injury he received in the process. Bolt was initially reluctant to make the film, but after meeting Brady he felt he could relate to Brady's struggles with a head injury, and many of his own experiences recovering from his stroke found their way into the script.
Bolt was married four times, twice to British actressSarah Miles. His first wife was Celia Ann "Jo" Roberts, by whom he had three children: Sally (died 1982), Ben, and Joanna.[5] They divorced in 1963. He was married to Miles from 1967 until 1976; Bolt had his fourth child, Thomas, with Miles. In the early 1980s, he had a third marriage, to the actress Ann Queensberry (former wife ofDavid Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry), before remarrying Sarah Miles in 1988, with whom he remained until his death in 1995.[6]
After the war, Bolt joined theCommunist Party of Great Britain, but he left it in the late 1960s after theSoviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.[7]
Bolt suffered a heart attack and a stroke that left him paralysed in 1979. He died aged 70 in 1995, inPetersfield,Hampshire, England, following a long illness.[8]
Robert Bolt was appointed a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1972 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.[9]
Bolt wrote several plays forBBC Radio in the 1950s, as well as several unproduced plays. Many of his early radio plays were for children, with few adapted for the stage.
Bolt may be best remembered for his work on film and television screenplays. His work for directorDavid Lean garnered him particular acclaim and recognition, and Bolt tried his hand at directing with the unsuccessfulLady Caroline Lamb (1972). While some criticised Bolt for focusing more on the personal aspects of his protagonists than the broader political context (particularly withLawrence of Arabia andA Man for All Seasons), most critics and audiences alike praised his screenplays. Bolt won twoOscars, twoBAFTA Awards and won or was nominated for several others.
Bolt also had several unrealised projects, including a TV miniseries adaptation ofGore Vidal's novelBurr; a film adaptation ofMadeleine L'Engle's novelA Wrinkle in Time forNorman Lear;[11] a script inspired by thePatty Hearst kidnapping calledThe Cover-Up withOliver Stone;[12] a film adaptation ofRobert Littell's novelThe October Circle forHugh Hudson;[13] a script about Irish patriotMichael Collins calledBlest Souls withMichael Cimino; original screenplays aboutGalileo Galilei and explorersScott andAmundsen;[7][14] a film adaptation ofAndré Malraux's novelMan's Fate also with Cimino;[15] and a script about the life ofSiddhartha calledBuddha forRon Fricke.[16][17] Additionally, Bolt was briefly attached as writer forGandhi andDavid Lean's unmade film version ofJoseph Conrad'sNostromo, before he was replaced on both.[7]
After being paid $US400,000 plus ten per cent of profits for hisRyan's Daughter screenplay, Bolt became, for a time, the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood.[citation needed]
| Year | Nominated work | Category | Result[18] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | A Man for All Seasons | Best Play | Won |
| 1972 | Vivat! Vivat Regina! | Nominated |
| Year | Nominated work | Academy Awards[19] Best Adapted Screenplay | BAFTA Awards[20] Best British Screenplay (A) Best Original Screenplay (B) | Golden Globe Awards[21] Best Screenplay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Lawrence of Arabia | Nominated | WonA (1963) | — |
| 1965 | Doctor Zhivago | Won | — | Won |
| 1966 | A Man for All Seasons | Won | WonA (1968) | Won |
| 1986 | The Mission | — | NominatedB (1987) | Won |
GALILEO
Log line: Robert Bolt's last screenplay, the biography of renowned astronomer, Galileo, and his life long fight with the Church.
Material: Script
Approximate Development Costs: $450,000
Chain of Title: Available
Writers, Directors and Producers originally involved:
• Writer: Robert Bolt
• Producers: Joe Feury, Dyson Lovell
BUDDHA (Waco Prods.) Fall 1995. Jason Scott Lee PROD, David Field, Lisa Iannini, Steven Ho; DR, Ron Fricke; SCR, Robert Bolt; CAM, Chanwei Gu.
| Trade union offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of theAssociation of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians 1974–c.1980 | Succeeded by Ron Bowie |
