Alvin Sargent, Oscar-Winning ‘Julia’ and ‘Ordinary People’ Screenwriter, Dies at 92
Academy Award winner Alvin Sargent, who penned an extraordinary number of popular and critically successful films, from “Paper Moon” and “Ordinary People” to the “Spider-Man” sequels of the 2000s, died Thursday, his talent agency Gersh confirmed to Variety.
He was 92.Sargent won adapted screenplay Oscars for “Julia” in 1978 and “Ordinary People” in 1981 and was also nominated in the category in 1974 for “Paper Moon.” (He also received Writers Guild awards for all three films.) The writer worked with many of Hollywood’s top directors over the course of his career, including Alan J.
Pakula, John Frankenheimer.
Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Redford, Martin Ritt, Norman Jewison, Stephen Frears and Wayne Wang, though not always when those helmers were doing their best work.Sargent started as a writer for television but broke into features with his screenplay for 1966’s “Gambit,” a Ronald Neame-directed comedy thriller starring Michael Caine,
