Stirling Silliphant Biography (1918-1996)



Born January 16, 1918; died of prostate cancer, April 26, 1996, in Bangkok, Thailand. Screenwriter, producer, and novelist. Silliphant was the producer and author of the 1967 screenplay for In the Heat of the Night; he was awardedan Academy Award, an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and a Golden Globe Award for his work on the film. A successful screenwriter for more than three decades, Silliphant was well-known for action films, such as ThePoseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1938, and worked in advertising and promotions for Walt Disney and Twentieth- Century Fox until 1952. The nextyear he wrote and produced the popular Joe Louis Story, and began to write novels with 1955's Maracaibo, which was adapted into film in 1958. In the 1960s Silliphant started working in television, becoming co-creator and principalwriter for two long-running series, Route 66 and The Naked City. Other television work included Salem's Lot, Pearl, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Silliphant won a Golden Globe Award in 1968 for Charly, a film adaptation of the classic short story Flowers for Algernon. In the late 1980s Silliphant moved toThailand where he was working on The Fusion and The Day of Reckoning, and was involved in developing the region's film industry. He filmed Truman Capote's autobiographical novel The Grass Harp in 1995.

Gender
Male
Occupation
screenwriter, producer, novelist
Birth Details
January 16, 1918
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Death Details
April 26, 1996
Bangkok, Thailand

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