Julian Barry ( Julian Barry Mendelsohn; born December 24, 1930) is a retired American screenwriter and playwright, best-known for his Oscar-nominated script for the 1974 film '' Lenny'' about comedian Lenny Bruce. Barry adapted the script from his successful

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

play of the same name. The film, directed by

Bob Fosse Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...

and starring

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is ...

and

Valerie Perrine Valerie Ritchie Perrine (born September 3, 1943) is an American actress. For her role as Honey Bruce in the 1974 film ''Lenny'', she won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Bes ...

, was nominated for the so-called Oscar Grand Slam, one of some 40 films to be so honored. Barry wrote or rewrote screenplays for several notable films including '' The River'', ''

Eyes of Laura Mars ''Eyes of Laura Mars'' is a 1978 American neo noir mystery-thriller film starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay was adapted (in collaboration with David Zelag Goodman) from a spec script titled ' ...

'', and ''

Rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

'', ''Me, Myself and I'', and ''A Marriage - Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz'' (PBS/American Playhouse Production). Barry appeared as himself in the film documentary ''Pablo'', about the graphic artist and film director

Pablo Ferro Pablo Ferro (January 15, 1935 – November 16, 2018) was a Cuban-American graphic designer, film titles designer, and founder of Pablo Ferro Films. Childhood Born in Antilla, Oriente Province, Cuba, he was raised on a remote farm before emigrat ...

. Barry resides in

Redding, Connecticut Redding is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2020 census. History Early settlement and establishment At the time colonials began receiving grants for land within the boundaries of present- ...

, but is frequently in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for theater work. He is not to be confused with the English singer/songwriter of the same name. Barry's autobiography, ''My Night with Orson'', was published on July 9, 2011, by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform ().

Early life

Julian Barry Mendelsohn was born on December 24, 1930, in New York City, the only child of Julian B. and Grace ( Fein) Mendelsohn.Grace Mendelsohn obituary
nytimes.com. March 18, 1997. Accessed September 29, 2022. He was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. He played

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

for his high school band, and traveled to jazz clubs in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to hear jazz performed by

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

, Dizzy Gillespie,

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...

and

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

. After high school, Barry attended Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, where he majored in drama and performed in university productions with comedian

Jerry Stiller Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015 ...

. He was drafted into the Army during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

and served until 1953.

Early career

Barry was cast in the 1955

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

production of ''

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane ...

'' at

New York City Center New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational parent of the New York City Ballet and, until 2011, the New York City Opera. and t ...

theater. He continued working on Broadway as an actor in the musical '' Shinbone Alley'', where he was also stage manager, He also stage managed the

Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' ...

treatment of '' The Disenchanted'', about the real life adventures of

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

. He stage managed seven other Broadway productions, appearing as an actor in several of them as well, and he worked in the Broadway theatre in this capacity through the mid sixties when he started writing full-time. In 1969, Barry was hired by Columbia Pictures to write the screenplay for ''Lenny''. The prospects for the project were reportedly harmed by the commercial success of '' Love Story'', having created a demand for romantic films, which ''Lenny'' certainly was not. Barry suggested to

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

Tom O'Horgan Tom O'Horgan (May 3, 1924 – January 11, 2009) was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals '' Hair'' and ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. During his ...

, who was fresh from his success with the musical '' Hair'', that the ''Lenny'' screenplay be redone as a play and the play was a hit starring

Cliff Gorman Cliff Gorman (born Joel Joshua Goldberg; October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor. He won an Obie award in 1968 for the stage presentation of '' The Boys in the Band'', and went on to reprise his role in the ...

. At the

50th Academy Awards The 50th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1977 and took place on April 3, 1978, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 7:00 p.m. PST ...

in 1974, ''Lenny'' was honored with nominations in all five categories that constitute the Oscar Grand Slam, including a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Barry. He was also nominated that year for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium, as well as a

Jeff Award The Joseph Jefferson Award, more commonly known informally as the Jeff Award, is given for theatre arts produced in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are named in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century American theater sta ...

for his directorial efforts on the ''Lenny'' stage show in Chicago. In 1983, Barry wrote the book for ''

Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. Seb ...

'', a musical biography of the

American actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and political activist who committed suicide in Paris in 1979. The production was directed by Peter Hall at London's National Theatre with music by Marvin Hamlisch. The production was a flop. Later he co-authored an opera with Peter Hall, Born Again at the Chichester Festival Theatre in England starring Mandy Patinkin and José Ferrer. Barry continues to enjoy considerable success and is able to be selective about the projects on which he works. He ventured back into opera writing the libretto for ''Zyklon'', an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

about the life of

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

scientist

Fritz Haber Fritz Haber (; 9 December 186829 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydroge ...

. The music was composed by the British composer Peter King.

Personal life

Barry met his second wife, Patricia Barry (née Foley), when he hired her to be in a Chicago production of ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also bo ...

''. She was hired to play the role of Sister Sarah Brown, opposite

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...

. Barry and Patricia were married three weeks later. They had three children: Sally, Michael, and Jennifer. Patricia died in November 1981 in a car accident. Barry later married and divorced film producer

Laura Ziskin Laura Ellen ZiskinGale Research Company (2002). ''Contemporary theatre, film, and television,'' p. 388. Gale Research Co., (March 3, 1950 – June 12, 2011) was an American film producer, known as the executive producer of '' Pretty Woman'' (199 ...

, who died in 2011. They had a daughter, Julia, who was born in 1983. Presently, Barry and all four of his children reside in New England. An enthusiastic jazz trumpet and saxophone player, Barry plays with a band in his town of

, where he has resided since 2001. Considering himself more or less "retired" he still continues to write.

Selected works

* ''Me, Myself and I'' (screenplay) * ''A Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz'' (screenplay) * '' The River'' (screenplay) * ''

'' (screenplay) * '' Lenny'' (play, 1974 screenplay) * ''

'' (play, screenplay) * ''Zyklon'' (opera, libretto)

Other works

* ''Jean Seberg'' (biographical musical librettist) * ''Born Again'' (opera; co-writer with Peter Hall)

Awards and nominations

* Nomination,

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay Film adaptation, adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include st ...

(''Lenny'', 1974) * Nomination, Writers Guild of America Award, Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium (''Lenny'', 1974) * Nomination, Joseph Jefferson Award, Director - Play (''Lenny'', 1974) * Drama Logue Awards in Los Angeles for both writing and directing the play The Reunification Hotel in 1999.

References

External links

* . Retrieved 2009-12-26. * . Accessed 2009-12-27. * *
Unleashing O'Casey: Julian Barry, Lenny Bruce & American tragedy

Julian Barry at Film.com

Jeff Awards - Celebrating Excellence in Chicago Theater
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Julian 1930 births 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters American television writers Living people American musical theatre librettists American male television writers American male dramatists and playwrights People from Redding, Connecticut 20th-century American male writers People from Riverdale, Bronx Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from Connecticut