- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSidney Aaron Chayefsky
- Nickname
- Pappy
- Author, producer, and composer who earned a Bachelor of Science degree from CCNY, then a Purple Heart during World War II while serving in the US Army. Joining ASCAP in 1955, his chief musical collaborators included George Bassman and Harry Warren. His popular-song compositions include "Marty" and "Middle of the Night".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hup234!
- SpouseSusan Sackler(1949 - August 1, 1981) (his death, 1 child)
- Complex plot progression
- Sidney Aaron Chayefsky received his more familiar nickname of Paddy while in the army during World War II. One Friday night, pork was being served in the mess hall. Rather than eat food forbidden him as an orthodox Jew, he said, in a put-on Irish brogue, that he was forbidden from eating meat on a Friday. His fellow soldiers, amused by this, started calling him Paddy, and the nickname stuck.
- In 1977, he (alongside Eletha Finch) accepted the posthumous Oscar for "Best Actor in a Leading Role" on behalf of Peter Finch
- Was good friends with Sidney Lumet. Network (1976) was the only film they did together.
- He is one of only five people to have won three Academy Awards for Best Screenplay and the only one to have won all of them solo. The other three time winners are Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder.
- Unlikely as it sounds, Chayefsky scripted draft versions of both "The Cincinnati Kid" and "Ice Station Zebra", though the eventual films were made from different screenplays by other writers. Both films were produced by Martin Ransohoff, who also produced "The Americanization Of Emily", which did use a Chayefsky screenplay. Several years earlier, he was mentioned as a possible scriptwriter for "Cleopatra", an even more unlikely subject for him; he would appear to have passed on this idea.
- [on Network (1976)] Television is democracy at its ugliest - give the people what they want. My rage isn't against television; it's against the dehumanization of people. People say to me, 'Jesus, you moved into some pretty surreal stuff', and I say 'No, I still write realistic stuff. It's the world that's turned into a satire.'
- [on Vanessa Redgrave's anti-Zionistic tirade at the 1978 Oscars] I would like to say - personal opinion of course - that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning the Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation, and a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed.
- [advice to Gore Vidal] If you want all the prizes, you gotta write shrill.
- In spite of everything, screenwriting is better than threading pipe.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content