John Sayles(I)
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
A bright child, John Sayles began reading novels before age 9. A
Williams College grad in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various
blue-collar jobs, moving to east Boston to take a factory job. He wrote
stories and submitted them to various magazines, and the Atlantic
Monthly gave him the idea of publishing them in a novel--thus "Pride of
the Bimbos" (1975) was born.
In the late 1970s he worked for renowned low-budget producer
Roger Corman as a screenwriter. He saved
much of the money he earned from that job, got some friends together
and made
Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)
in 25 days. Altough it was a hit, he had trouble obtaining financing
for the films he wanted to make because he would not give up his right
of final cut. Baby It's You (1983)
was Sayles' only film made under studio control.
In 1983 the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship granted him a tax-free
income of $32,000 a year for 5 years. That stipend and money he earned
for writing such films as
The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986),
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983)
and Breaking In (1989) enabled him to
make the kinds of films he wanted to make.
Lone Star (1996) placed Sayles in the
ranks of top American filmmakers. In it and his other films, a broadly
appealing social consciousness emerges, showing Sayles to be concerned
with what's going on with regional cultures, national values and what
living in the US is like today.
Sayles and
Maggie Renzi, whom he met during college,
have lived together since the 1970s, splitting their time between a
Hoboken, NJ, house and a farm in upstate New York. They have no plans
to marry.
Williams College grad in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various
blue-collar jobs, moving to east Boston to take a factory job. He wrote
stories and submitted them to various magazines, and the Atlantic
Monthly gave him the idea of publishing them in a novel--thus "Pride of
the Bimbos" (1975) was born.
In the late 1970s he worked for renowned low-budget producer
Roger Corman as a screenwriter. He saved
much of the money he earned from that job, got some friends together
and made
Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)
in 25 days. Altough it was a hit, he had trouble obtaining financing
for the films he wanted to make because he would not give up his right
of final cut. Baby It's You (1983)
was Sayles' only film made under studio control.
In 1983 the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship granted him a tax-free
income of $32,000 a year for 5 years. That stipend and money he earned
for writing such films as
The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986),
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983)
and Breaking In (1989) enabled him to
make the kinds of films he wanted to make.
Lone Star (1996) placed Sayles in the
ranks of top American filmmakers. In it and his other films, a broadly
appealing social consciousness emerges, showing Sayles to be concerned
with what's going on with regional cultures, national values and what
living in the US is like today.
Sayles and
Maggie Renzi, whom he met during college,
have lived together since the 1970s, splitting their time between a
Hoboken, NJ, house and a farm in upstate New York. They have no plans
to marry.