John Bishop (May 3, 1929 – December 20, 2006), was an American playwright and screenwriter who achieved limited success on both

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 ...

and in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

. Bishop was born in

Mansfield, Ohio Mansfield is a city in and the county seat of Richland County, Ohio, United States. Located midway between Columbus and Cleveland via Interstate 71, it is part of Northeast Ohio region in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau. The city ...

. He majored in theatre at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and began his career as an actor at the

Cleveland Play House Cleveland Play House (CPH) is a professional regional theater company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1915 and built its own noted theater complex in 1927. Currently the company performs at the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square wher ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Although his stage career led into directing, his first success on Broadway came from writing the play ''The Trip Back Down'', which played for two months at the

Longacre Theatre The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Opened in 1913, it was desi ...

in early 1977. In 1987, he made it back to Broadway by writing and directing ''

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 ''The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940'' is a comedy by John Bishop (screenwriter), John Bishop. The play was first performed at the Circle Repertory Company in their theatre at 99 Seventh Avenue South in New York City, later moving to Broadway thea ...

'', which ran for almost four months, again at the Longacre. During this time, Bishop was also a member of the acclaimed off-Broadway

Circle Repertory Company The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by direc ...

. Mr. Bishop moved west after the dissolution of Circle Repertory Company in 1997 and founded Circle West, which carried on many of the artistic missions of the original Circle Repertory Company. Bishop served as artistic director until his death. Among the plays the company produced was Mr. Bishop's ''Legacies'', a police-detective drama. After Broadway, Bishop began writing for Hollywood. He wrote the screenplay for '' The Package'', a 1989

action thriller Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include lif ...

starring

Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...

. Although ''The Package'' earned poorly at the box office, the film was well regarded by some critics, including

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

, who gave it three stars out of four.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a rating of 64% based on 14 reviews. Bishop also did writing work for

Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

, where he used his knowledge of and interest in male behavior and police procedures to do rewrites for big-budget thrillers such as ''

Clear and Present Danger ''Clear and Present Danger'' is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and published on August 17, 1989. A sequel to ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'' (1988), main character Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence in t ...

'' and ''

Beverly Hills Cop III ''Beverly Hills Cop III'' is a 1994 American action comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by John Landis, who had previously worked with Murphy on ''Trading Places'' and ''Coming to America''. It is the third film in the ''Beverly Hill ...

''.Playbill.com obituary
/ref> Bishop fathered three children, named Matthew, Michael, and Christopher. Although a resident of Encino, he died at a clinic in Bad Heilbrunn, Germany at the age of 77 and was survived by his wife Lisa.

Film and TV

* ''Comedy Zone'' (TV series) 1984 * '' The Package'' (written by) 1989 * ''

Sliver Sliver may refer to: Entertainment *Sliver (novel), ''Sliver'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Ira Levin **Sliver (film), ''Sliver'' (film), a 1993 film adaptation of the novel **Sliver (soundtrack), ''Sliver'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the 1993 fi ...

'' (rewrite) 1993 * ''

Drop Zone A drop zone (DZ) is a place where parachutists or parachuted supplies land. It can be an area targeted for landing by paratroopers, or a base from which recreational parachutists and skydivers take off in aircraft and land under parachutes. In ...

'' (screenplay) 1994 * ''

'' (rewrite) 1994 * ''

'' (rewrite) 1994 * '' Primal Fear'' (rewrite) 1996

Theater

* ''The Trip Back Down'' * ''

'' * ''Borderlines'' * ''The Great Grandson of Jedediah Kohler'' * ''The Harvesting'' * ''The Beaver Coat'' (directed) * ''El Salvador'' (directed) * ''Florida Crackers'' (directed) * ''Empty Hearts'' (written and directed)

References

External links

* * * *
John Bishop's obituary in the Los Angeles Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, John 1929 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters People from Mansfield, Ohio Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters