Biography:After an unsuccessful acting career (he can be glimpsed briefly, playing a photographer, in the 1947 film A Double Life), Paddy Chayefsky struck gold in the 1950s as a playwright for television; his plays, such as Marty, Printer's Devil and The Bachelor Party were hailed for their eloquence and won many awards. He seemed made for the medium, and his work made television more respected. He was soon also writing for Broadway (his first hit there was Middle Of The Night) and films - not only the movie versions of Marty and The Bachelor Party, but such originals as The Goddess, The Hospital and Network. (The latter two films won him Oscars). After the "golden age" of live TV drama ended, he concentrated on the stage, but was quickly disenchanted with Broadway, preferring to write for regional theatre companies and to premiere his work outside New York. He claimed to write for films when he needed money ("I get a lot of good ideas when I'm broke") and he was insistent that hisAfter an unsuccessful acting career (he can be glimpsed briefly, playing a photographer, in the 1947 film A Double Life), Paddy Chayefsky struck gold in the 1950s as a playwright for television; his plays, such as Marty, Printer's Devil and The Bachelor Party were hailed for their eloquence and won many awards. He seemed made for the medium, and his work made television more respected. He was soon also writing for Broadway (his first hit there was Middle Of The Night) and films - not only the movie versions of Marty and The Bachelor Party, but such originals as The Goddess, The Hospital and Network. (The latter two films won him Oscars). After the "golden age" of live TV drama ended, he concentrated on the stage, but was quickly disenchanted with Broadway, preferring to write for regional theatre companies and to premiere his work outside New York. He claimed to write for films when he needed money ("I get a lot of good ideas when I'm broke") and he was insistent that his scripts be filmed without changes - he had the kind of power over the films made from them that would normally be in the hands of the director. This led to may problems with his last screenplay, Altered States (which he based on his own novel). He was so dissatisfied with the film Ken Russell made from it that he let the script be credited to "Sidney Aarons", a pseudonym derived from his real forenames. Soon afterward, he died at only 58. …Expand
