Sam Wasson is an American author and publisher, who often writes about the history of cinema in Hollywood. His works include the biographyFosse, the history booksImprov Nation: How We Made a Great American Art andThe Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood and the co-authoredHollywood: The Oral History.

Wasson was born inLos Angeles. His maternal grandfather was formerVariety executive Hal “Lew” Scott.^[1][2] Wasson attendedWesleyan University, andUSC School of Cinematic Arts.^{[citation needed]}

During the writing of his Bob Fosse biography, Wasson and researcher Jane Klein unearthed lost footage of Fosse's 1961 ABC television showSeasons of Youth.^[3] In 2014,Fosse was one of six books shortlisted for the $10,000 Marfield Prize,^[4] and received the Special Jury Prize at the George Freedley Memorial Award.^[5] Production rights for a limited television series based on the book were purchased by television channelFX in 2018.^[6]

In 2020, Wasson published a book about the making of the 1974 movieChinatown, titledThe Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood.^[7] Later that year, a film adaptation ofThe Big Goodbye was announced, withLorne Michaels attached as producer andBen Affleck as director.^[8][9] Also in 2020, Wasson co-founded a publishing house with producer Brandon Millan.^[10]

Wasson was a visiting professor at Wesleyan University^[11] andEmerson College.^[12]

In 2021, Wasson andWilliam Rempel filed a lawsuit to unseal a 2010 deposition transcript of Roger Gunson, a former deputy district attorney, in relation to theRoman Polanski sexual abuse case.^[13] In July 2022, the court ruled for the transcripts to be unsealed.^{[14][15][16][17]}

In 2022, Wasson and Jeanine Basinger wrote an oral history book titledHollywood: The Oral History.^[18][19]

• A Splurch in the Kisser: The Movies of Blake Edwards. Wesleyan University Press. 2006.ISBN 978-0-8195-6977-6.
• Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman. HarperCollins. 2010.ISBN 978-0-0620-0013-2.^[20]
• Paul on Mazursky. Wesleyan University Press. 2011.ISBN 978-0-8195-7144-1.^[21]
• Fosse. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2013.ISBN 978-0-5475-5329-0.^[22]
• Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017.ISBN 978-0-5445-5720-8.^[23]
• The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood. Flatiron Books. 2019.ISBN 978-1-2502-6629-3.^[24]
• Hollywood: The Oral History. HarperCollins. 2022.ISBN 978-0-0630-5696-1.^[25]

• Official website
• Sam Wasson atIMDb

• 1981 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American Jews
• 21st-century American male writers
• 21st-century American non-fiction writers
• American film historians
• American male non-fiction writers
• Harvard-Westlake School alumni
• Historians from California
• Jewish American historians
• University of Southern California alumni
• Wesleyan University alumni
• Writers from Los Angeles

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023
• Official website not in Wikidata